Gratitude Interventions: Effective Self-help? A Meta-analysis of the Impact on Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety

AbstractResearch suggests gratitude interventions —designed to increase appreciation of positive qualities, situations, and people in one’s life—may improve psychological well-being (e.g., Seligman et al. in Am Psychol 60:410–421, 2005.https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410). Accordingly, mental health practitioners have promoted gratitude interventions as a means of self-help. However, results from previous reviews suggest that well-being improvements associated with gratitude interventions may be attributable to placebo effects (Davis et al. in J Couns Psychol 63:20 –31, 2016.https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000107; Wood et al. in Clin Psychol Rev 30:890 –905, 2010,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005). With this meta-analysis, we examined the efficacy of gratitude interventions (k = 27,N = 3675) in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety at post-test and follow-up periods. Gratitude interventions had a small effect on symptoms of depression and anxiety at both post-test (g = − 0.29,SE = 0.06,p <  .01) and follow-up (g = − 0.23,SE = 0.06,p <  .01). Correcting for attenuation from unreliability did not change results. Moderation analyses indicated effect sizes were larger for studies using waitlist, rather than active, control conditions at post-test and follow-up. We did not find consistent evidence for effects of other moderator vari ables (e.g., risk of bias, depressive symptom severity, or type of interven...
Source: Journal of Happiness Studies - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research