The Development of Gratitude in Brazilian Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to examine age-related changes in gratitude expression and spending preferences and the associations between children's greatest wish and gratitude expression. Participants were 285 children of ages 7 to 14 (M = 10.87, SD = 2.27, 54% girls) from public and private schools in Porto Alegre, a large urban center of Brazil. We found that verbal gratitude was the most common type of gratitude expression. Older children were more likely to express verbal and less likely to express concrete gratitude than were younger participants; they were also more likely to choose saving money for the future and less likely to choose donating to the poor. We also found a positive correlation between hedonistic wishes and concrete gratitude and between social well-being wishes and connective gratitude. Our results suggest that gratitude is linked to the ability of thinking about others, and may be hindered by a focus on immediate pleasure.

Children’s and Adolescents’ Gratitude Expression and its Association with their Greatest Wishes across Ethnic Groups in the United States

“…For instance, expressing hedonistic wishes was linked to a lesser likelihood of expressing connective than verbal gratitude for Brazilians in comparison to Hispanics. This finding supports the view that hedonistic values hamper reciprocation involving perspective taking, at least for Brazilians (Freitas et al 2016;Liang and Kiang 2018;Mendonça et al 2018;Palhares et al 2018). This result may also suggest that, for Hispanics, there are other cultural values strengthening the expression of connective gratitude despite wishing for hedonistic things.…”

“…Specifically, Tudge et al (2015a) found a significant inverse association between connective gratitude and hedonistic wishes among children and adolescents in the United States. Moreover, other results indicated that concrete gratitude was positively associated with hedonistic wishes, and connective gratitude was positively associated with social-oriented wishes among Brazilian and Chinese children and adolescents (e.g., Freitas et al 2016;Liang and Kiang 2018;Mendonça et al 2018;Palhares et al 2018). Based on that, in the present study, we hypothesized that participants across ethnic groups who expressed hedonistic wishes would be more likely to express concrete than connective gratitude.…”

“…Age differences have also been found in other countries, with some of the results showing similar trends. For example, in the case of 7-to 14-year-old Brazilians, younger children were more likely to express concrete gratitude than were older youth (Merçon-Vargas et al 2016;Palhares et al 2018). Also, for same aged Guatemalan and Chinese children and adolescents, younger participants were less likely to express connective gratitude than were older ones (Liang and Kiang 2018;Poelker and Gibbons 2018;Wang et al 2015).…”

“…Considering both the cross-cultural studies' findings suggesting that cultures placing a greater emphasis on relatedness may foster the expression of connective gratitude and the findings that ethnic and immigrant sociocultural groups in the United States are more likely to value connectedness with others, we can expect differences in gratitude expression of children and adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds in the U. S. Based on that, we hypothesize that participants from underrepresented ethnic groups in the United States, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and Brazilian immigrants, will be more likely to express connective rather than concrete gratitude than will European American children and adolescents. Also, we expect that Hispanic and Brazilian immigrant participants will be more likely to express verbal gratitude than will European and African Americans (see for example, Mendonça et al 2018;Palhares et al 2018;Poelker and Gibbons 2018).…”

Pengaruh ungkapan syukur dan motivasi terhadap perilaku prososial remaja

“…Di dalam masyarakat Brazil, ungkapan syukur secara verbal adalah strategi yang paling umum dilakukan (Palhares, Freitas, Vargas & Tudge, 2018). Sedangkan pada masyarakat Cina dan Korea Selatan, ekspresi syukur connective yaitu membalas kebaikan benefactor dengan sesuatu yang diharapkan atau yang mungkin dibutuhkan oleh benefactor, menjadi strategi yang diutamakan (Mendonça, Mercon-Vargas dkk., 2018).…”