Grateful for tomorrow: Anticipatory savoring mediates the association between gratitude and positive emotion — ASN Events
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Grateful for tomorrow: Anticipatory savoring mediates the association between gratitude and positive emotion (#889)

Emily K. Tan 1 , Laura G. McKee 1
  1. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States

Background: Research has long emphasized the relationships among gratitude, savoring, and positive emotions across the lifespan. These cognitive and emotional qualities are salient in adolescence due to the potential stress of social, emotional, and lifestyle changes (Gilbert, 2012). Gratitude has been linked with positive affect (Froh et al., 2009) and savoring (Chadwick et al., 2021) in adolescents, and both are associated with positive emotions. However, questions remain regarding processes through which gratitude relates to positive affect. Individuals who feel grateful may be more open to imagining future good, and in turn, feel hopeful, inspired, and happy. Little research, however, has examined the function of anticipatory savoring in youth.  

Aims: The current study seeks to further elucidate unique relationships among anticipatory savoring, gratitude, and positive emotion in adolescence by testing a mediation model in which anticipatory savoring explains the relationship between gratitude and positive mood.

Method: Fifty 9th graders (M age = 14.34, SD = .55; 89% Latine) in the United States participated in a positive psychology intervention; data collected at wave 1 baseline assessment are analyzed. Gratitude, Savoring through Anticipation, and Positive Emotion were measured using the Gratitude Questionnaire, Children’s Savoring Beliefs Inventory: Anticipating Subscale, and the Modified Differential Emotions Scale: Positive Emotion Subscale.

Results: Regressions in SPSS indicated a positive significant relation between gratitude and (1) positive emotion and (2) anticipatory savoring, and between anticipatory savoring and positive emotion. A Sobel test conducted to test indirect effects of the mediation model revealed partial mediation (z = 1.99, p = .04).

Conclusion: Adolescents who experience gratitude may tend towards anticipatory savoring, which may heighten their positive emotions. This is both consistent with previous literature demonstrating proactive anticipation can enhance joyful moments and novel in suggesting that anticipatory savoring as a process may link gratitude with positive emotions. Anticipatory savoring merits further study as a process underpinning the experience of positive emotion in adolescence.

 

  1. Chadwick, E.D., Jose, P.E. & Bryant, F.B. Styles of Everyday Savoring Differentially Predict Well-being in Adolescents Over One Month. J Happiness Stud 22, 803–824 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00252-6
  2. Froh, J. J., Kashdan, T. B., Ozimkowski, K. M., & Miller, N. (2009). Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention in children and adolescents? Examining positive affect as a moderator. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 408–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760902992464
  3. Gilbert, K. E. (2012). The neglected role of positive emotion in adolescent psychopathology. Clinical psychology review, 32(6), 467–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.05.005
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Mindfulness, Positive emotions
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