Gratitude to God Predicts Religious Well-Being over Time

Abstract

The authors used a prospective design to investigate how gratitude to God predicts religious well-being over time. Gratitude to God is a central aspect of monotheistic religions, and thus may be particularly important to the religious/spiritual well-being of believers. Participants completed online measures of trait and state gratitude to God, along with spiritual well-being, nearness to God, and religious commitment scales over a one-to-two-month period. General well-being, trait gratitude, and the Big Five personality traits were also assessed. After controlling baseline levels, trait gratitude and the Big Five personality traits, dispositional gratitude to God at Time 1 predicted increased religious well-being, nearness to God, and religious commitment at Time 2. Although gratitude to God was significantly related to general well-being variables in cross-sectional analyses, it did not predict these variables over time. Validity data for the gratitude to God measures are also presented. The results suggest that gratitude to God is important to religious/spiritual well-being, and gratitude to God may be a critical variable for research on positive psychology and the psychology of religion/spirituality.

Meaning making enhances gratitude to God: The importance of spiritual appraisals.

“…We suspect that both might be true: GTG and one’s experiential conception of a loving God may interact in a positive feedback loop. One study found that trait GTG predicted enhanced nearness to God over time (P. C. Watkins et al, 2022).…”

“…But GTG may be particularly important to spiritual well-being. In a recent prospective study, trait GTG predicted increased spiritual well-being over time (P. C. Watkins et al, 2022). In sum, God is an important benefactor for religious people, GTG is a frequent emotion for believers in God, and GTG may be important for the general and spiritual well-being of religious/spiritual individuals.…”

“…After completing the Religious/Spiritual Struggles Scale (R/SS, Exline et al, 2014), respondents took the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6), the most frequently used measure of dispositional gratitude (McCullough et al, 2002, α = .77). This was followed by a revised version of the Nearness to God scale (Gorsuch & Smith, 1983, α = .92) and the GTG trait questionnaire (P. C. Watkins et al, 2019Watkins et al, , 2022, a measure of dispositional GTG. To assess the level of religious commitment, we administered the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (Plante & Boccaccini, 1997, α = .98).…”

The 12-Step Pathway to Spiritual Growth and Gratitude and Its Relationship With Well-Being Among the Members of Sexaholics Anonymous in Poland

“…In many religious systems and spiritual paths, gratitude is treated as a desired value and virtue (Carlisle & Tsang, 2013 ; Emmons & Kneezel, 2005 ). In a religious context, human beings should be grateful to God as a source of all good (Watkins et al, 2022 ). A grateful attitude to God, who is perceived as a benefactor, is enhanced by a cultural reciprocity norm (Gouldner, 1960 ).…”

The experiences of faith and church community among Christian adults with mental illness: A qualitative metasynthesis.

“…As for religiosity, much research has shown that increasing commitment to religion is associated with better health outcomes (Shattuck & Muehlenbein, 2020). This has included lower levels of self-reported depression (Forouhari et al, 2019), anxiety (Abdel-Khalek et al, 2019), and personality disorders (Buzdar et al, 2019), in addition to higher rates of well-being (Hoogeveen et al, 2022), gratitude (Watkins et al, 2022), hope (Counted et al, 2022), and supportive connections with God and others (Lloyd & Reid, 2022). That being said, an existing body of research has also suggested that religious individuals are possibly less likely to come forward for mental health help when facing psychological difficulties (Lloyd et al, 2021; Lloyd & Kotera, 2021).…”