Huston, Garrett E., Law, Kwok Hong, Teague, Samantha, Pardon, Madelyn, Muller, Jessica L., Jackson, Ben, and Dimmock, James A. (2024) Understanding and optimising gratitude interventions: the right methods for the right people at the right time. Psychology & Health. (In Press)

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Abstract

Objective: Gratitude has consistently been associated with various beneficial health-related outcomes, including subjective wellbeing, positive mental health, and positive physical health. In light of such effects, positive psychology researchers and practitioners have often implemented gratitude interventions in an attempt to build individuals’ orientations toward appreciation and thankfulness. Recent meta-analyses and reviews have revealed, however, that these interventions often have mixed effects on gratitude or other health outcomes. With this issue in mind, we aimed to identify (a) contextual considerations that may impact the effectiveness of these approaches, and (b) recommendations for the optimisation of gratitude interventions.

Methods and Measures: Seventeen mental health professionals or experienced health psychology researchers engaged in semi-structured interviews to address the research questions.

Results: Thematic analysis of the data resulted in three contextual themes—cultural considerations, personal characteristics, and life experience—that were discussed as factors likely to influence intervention effectiveness. With respect to recommendations, participants highlighted the importance of encouraging deep engagement in gratitude tasks, consistent repetition of those tasks, and the value of interpersonal expressions of gratitude.

Conclusion: Discussion is centred on suggestions for future research on gratitude and on implications for the implementation of gratitude interventions.

Item ID:	83467
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1476-8321
Keywords:	mindfulness, positive psychology, Trait gratitude, wellbeing
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Copyright Information:	© 2024 the author(s). Published by Informa UK limited, trading as taylor & Francis group. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Date Deposited:	27 Aug 2024 00:45
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