The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation among gratitude, stress coping strategies, and psychological well-being, and to investigate whether the stress coping strategies moderated the relationship between gratitude and psychological we...
The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation among gratitude, stress coping strategies, and psychological well-being, and to investigate whether the stress coping strategies moderated the relationship between gratitude and psychological well-being among the adolescents.
Participants were 401 male and female third grade students from 4 middle schools in Busan. Correlational analyses and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to analyze the collected data.
The results of this study were as follows. First, gratitude correlated positively with the following stress coping strategies: problem-focus coping strategy, support seeking coping strategy, and emotion-focus coping strategy. Gratitude also correlated positively with psychological well-being. The problem-focus coping strategy and the support seeking coping strategy correlated positively with psychological well-being while the correlation between the emotion-focus coping strategy and psychological well-being was not statistically significant.
Second, the support seeking coping strategy and the emotion-focus coping strategy significantly moderated the relationship between gratitude and psychological well-being while the moderating effect of the problem-focus coping strategy was not statistically significant.
These results indicate that gratitude and stress coping strategies have an important influence on adolescents' psychological well-being, and the influence of gratitude on psychological well-being differs according to high and low levels of stress coping strategies such as the support seeking coping strategy and the emotion-focus coping strategy. Therefore, to enhance psychological well-being of adolescents, it is important not only to promote their gratitude but also to provide enough support for them and to develop their ability of active problem solving in stressful situations. In addition, the emotional characteristics of Korean adolescents should be considered in counseling situations. Finally, the limitations of this study and the suggestions for future studies are presented.