Datu JAD, Valdez JPM, McInerney DM, Cayubit RF. The effects of gratitude and kindness on life satisfaction, positive emotions, negative emotions, and COVID-19 anxiety: An online pilot experimental study.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being 2021;
14:347-361. [PMID:
34668323 PMCID:
PMC8652666 DOI:
10.1111/aphw.12306]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 08/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The continuous surge in the number of confirmed diagnoses and fatalities associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has caused debilitating economic, educational, social, and psychological issues. However, little is known about how psychological interventions may boost well‐being outcomes amid the pandemic. This research addresses this gap by examining the effects of gratitude and kindness interventions on life satisfaction, positive emotions, negative emotions, and COVID‐19 anxiety via an online pilot experimental study. A 3‐week online pilot experiment was implemented among 107 Filipino undergraduate students (M = 20.27; SD = 1.10). These participants were randomly assigned to kindness (n = 37), gratitude (n = 32), and control (n = 38) conditions. The results showed that there were significant differences on positive emotions when controlling for the baseline well‐being, gratitude, and kindness scores across all conditions (i.e., gratitude, kindness, and control). Participants assigned in the gratitude and kindness conditions had significantly higher scores on positive emotions than those in the control condition. The findings point to the emotional benefits associated with promoting gratitude and kindness during the COVID‐19 pandemic. This research contributes to scarce literature on the applicability of well‐being interventions in non‐Western cultural contexts.
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