A study to explore the relationship between Gratitude in Daily Life and Self Esteem among young adults

ABSTRACT

Background: Gratitude as expressed by an individual can be seen both as a dispositional trait and even asan emotion. It helps man to see positive life events as more positive and negative life events as seeminglyless traumatic. Studies over time have clearly revealed the significance of gratitude to foster lifesatisfaction, optimism, physical and psychological well-being, etc. These different indicators on the otherhand also play a pivotal role in boosting the self-esteem in an individual. This study therefore aims atexploring if there exists any relation between the degree of gratitude carried by an individual and thequantum of self-esteem in the individual.Methods: The method used was survey. Young adults between the age bands of 18-22 years wererandomly chosen for the study. Rosenberg's scale for self-esteem and Gratitude Resentment andAppreciation Test for measuring Gratitude were used as tools.Results: Results of the present study suggest that there is a significant and positive correlation betweenself-esteem of a young adult and 2 of the 4 measured aspects of gratitude like ‘Simple Appreciation’ factorand ‘Appreciation for Others’ factor. The correlations are however of low strength indicating that thesetwo variables are less influenced by each other and may therefore have other unexamined strongcorrelates.Conclusions: Gratitude in daily life and self esteem in young adults may not influence each other. Furtherstudies are needed to explore the relationship between these variables