Christmastime is coming, you and me will probably hear that sentence from our relatives soon: “Oh, what on earth I am going to give to the kids for Christmas? They are so spoiled! They never seem to be thankful for the gifts we make anyway”. Gratitude. Who does not agree that gratitude is a precious value to get from others and to pass to children? But why is gratitude so important? Is it a mere expression of basic courtesy? Within the large research field of emotions, gratitude has been defined as a positive emotional state following a pleasant event as well as a personality attribute, mostly in adults, with the idea that the occurrence of gratitude expression habits during childhood induces a gratitude mindset in adulthood. A wide number of studies show that gratitude in both children and adults turn to be associated with well-being and a series of positive outcomes. Rothenberg and his colleagues from four American universities (2017) have studied how parents contribute to the development of a gratitude mindset in their children based on Eisenberg’s emotion socialization model. According to their theory, parents first set socialization goals related to a specific emotion and then engage in activities related to the given emotion that influence the development of children’s experiences and expressions of that emotion. After confirming the premise that parents gratitude is associated to their child gratitude, the authors’ aim was to find the explaining factors of this association. They found that parents-children passing of gratitude was facilitated by some parents personality attributes such as optimism and extroversion and their implicationin religious activities. But the main outcome was the mediation of parental strategies complying with Eisenberg’s model. Parents do set gratitude-related goals and then select gratitude-related activities towards these goals. The authors stress out that parents’ intention to pass the gratitude value is not sufficient to make children display gratitude behaviours. Experiencing gratitude through activities such as volunteering or service to those in need seems to be necessary for children to integrate the gratitude mindset. These results not only strengthen the already wide literature on the importance of experience in the learning process but also reminds the cognitive dimension of emotional development. In addition, this study outcomes could be useful to incite parents to engage or continue to engage in positive emotion-related activities.
By Véronique RUIZ
Source : Rothenberg,W. A., Hussong, A. M., Langley, H. A., Egerton, G. A., Halberstadt, A. G.,Coffman, J. L., ... & Costanzo, P. R. (2017). Grateful parents raising grateful children: Niche selection and the socialization of child gratitude. Applied developmental science, 21(2), 106-120.
Words I have learned:
spoiled = gate
courtesy =politesse
to pass = transmettre
volunteering = bénévolat
Key words : gratitude mindset - emotion socialization model - gratitude-related goals - gratitude-related activities - intention