Evaluating the effects of gratitude interventions on college student well-being
A rare head-to-head test of gratitude formats. Students were randomised to journaling, reflection, or app-prompted reflection for eight weeks; all three improved well-being where the control group did not, and gratitude journaling appeared to have the largest impact on well-being and affective functioning.
If you want to know whether writing it down beats just thinking it, this is the study that asked.
One hundred and thirty-two college students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions for eight weeks: gratitude journaling, gratitude reflection, app-prompted reflection, or an activity-matched control.
All three gratitude groups showed improvements in well-being over time. The control group did not.
Gratitude journaling appeared to have the most significant positive impact on well-being and affective functioning of the three formats.
That is a useful finding and a fragile one. Four arms across 132 people leaves each group small, and the authors’ language - appeared to have - is appropriately cautious. Treat it as a hint that writing beats thinking, not as a settled result.
The activity-matched control deserves credit. Comparing gratitude against a matched activity rather than against nothing rules out the possibility that any structured weekly task would have done the same.
With 132 students split across four arms, the comparison between formats rests on small groups, and the paper reports journaling as appearing strongest rather than as a decisive statistical win over the other formats. It studied college students at a single northwest university, and outcomes were self-reported questionnaires.
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Summarized by Tiago Martins · Last updated: · How we write these
