Gratitude and the Reduced Costs of Materialism in Adolescents

Materialistic youth seem to be languishing while grateful youth seem to be flourishing. High school students ( N  = 1,035) completed measures of materialism, gratitude, academic functioning, envy, depression, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption. Using structural equation modeling,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of happiness studies 2011-04, Vol.12 (2), p.289-302
Main Authors: Froh, Jeffrey J., Emmons, Robert A., Card, Noel A., Bono, Giacomo, Wilson, Jennifer A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Adolescents
Child psychology
Children & youth
Data collection
Depression (Psychology)
Economics
Happiness
High School Students
Life Satisfaction
Materialism
Mental depression
Personality
Personality and Social Psychology
Philosophy
Positive Psychology
Quality of Life Research
Research Paper
Secondary school students
Social Integration
Social Sciences
Success
Teenagers
Youth
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Summary:Materialistic youth seem to be languishing while grateful youth seem to be flourishing. High school students ( N  = 1,035) completed measures of materialism, gratitude, academic functioning, envy, depression, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption. Using structural equation modeling, we found that gratitude, controlling for materialism, uniquely predicts all outcomes considered: higher grade point average, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption, as well as lower envy and depression. In contrast, materialism, controlling for gratitude, uniquely predicts three of the six outcomes: lower grade point average, as well as higher envy and life satisfaction. Furthermore, when examining the relative strengths of gratitude and materialism as predictors, we found that gratitude is generally a stronger predictor of these six outcomes than is materialism.
ISSN:1389-4978
1573-7780
DOI:10.1007/s10902-010-9195-9