Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Examining a Sequential Mediation Model Linking Gratitude, Social Relationships, School Resilience and School Well-being (#537)

Imelda S. Caleon 1 , Chin Leng Ong 2 , Nur Qamarina Ilham 1 , Jennifer Tan 1 , Ronnel King 3
  1. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, SINGAPORE
  2. Meridian Secondary School, Singapore
  3. Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

This study aimed to determine how the association between gratitude and school well-being (i.e., school life satisfaction) is mediated by relatedness with significant others and school resilience. With Grade Eight and Nine students (N=190) in Singapore as sample, simple mediation analysis was conducted to assess the indirect effect of relatedness on the association between gratitude and school resilience followed by sequential mediation analysis to examine the indirect effect of gratitude on school well-being (SWB) through relatedness and school resilience. We found that gratitude predicted relatedness, which in turn predicted school resilience and SWB. The indirect path from gratitude to SWB through relatedness (without going through school resilience) and the indirect path from gratitude to SWB through school resilience (without going through relatedness) were both found significant. These findings suggest a complex mechanism linking gratitude and well-being and showed how gratitude may serve as foundational resource for promoting resilience and well-being in schools. Our findings suggest stronger associations of gratitude with social relationships, resilience and well-being in Confucian-oriented Asian cultures than previously thought. This study is one of the first to establish the empirical relationship among gratitude, relatedness, resilience and well-being in a single study within an Asian educational setting.