The Christian Gratitude Scale: An emic approach to measuring thankfulness in every season of life.

Abstract

In the present study, we aimed to develop and empirically investigate a short, emic selfreport measure to assess gratitude to God (GTG) among Christian populations, operationalized from within the Christian tradition. Employing two subsamples from an online sample of Christian adults (N = 584), we performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to establish factorial validity, then conducted analyses to establish internal consistency reliability and convergent and incremental validity. Results revealed the final 6-item Christian Gratitude Scale (CGS) demonstrated factorial validity, had adequate internal consistency reliability, and was strongly correlated (positive) with general gratitude and mental well-being, weakly correlated (negative) with anxious God attachment, and strongly correlated (negative) with avoidant God attachment. The emic CGS also predicted mental well-being after controlling for the effects of an etic general gratitude scale. To conclude, we discussed the use of the emic scale in future research and intervention contexts, along with study limitations.

Lectio divina for trauma symptoms: A two-part study.

“…We believe the results of this two-part study are promising, as they suggest that a Christian meditative practice (lectio divina) may be a helpful Christian-derived alternative to Buddhist-derived loving-kindness meditation for increasing positive emotions, decreasing negative emotions, and decreasing symptoms of trauma, depression, anxiety, and stress. Therefore, these two studies contribute to the growing body of literature on Christian-derived and -sensitive theories and interventions focused on stress and trauma (Knabb et al, 2017; Knabb, Pate, Sullivan, et al, 2020; Knabb, Vazquez, Wang, et al, 2021; Knabb & Vazquez, 2018). What is more, consistent with the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies’ recommendation for the development of stabilizing strategies (Phase 1) prior to actually processing the traumatic event (Phase 2) in the treatment of PTSD, the present study’s findings suggest that lectio divina may be helpful for stabilizing Christians with PTSD and other posttrauma symptoms (Cloitre et al, 2012).…”

“…For both intervention groups, Module 1 was delivered via email on Day 1 of the 14-day program and consisted of the preintervention measures, discussed in the Measures subsection below, followed by the presentation of a roughly 5-min introduction video, recorded by the first author, that outlined the intervention (lectio divina or loving-kindness meditation); short manual that explained the background and steps of the practice (lectio divina or loving-kindness meditation; see Knabb et al, 2021a, 2021b); 10-min audio recording of the practice (lectio divina or loving-kindness meditation), recorded by the first author; recommendation, although not requirement, of practicing an audio recording of a 2 min, condensed, informal version of the 10-min formal practice (lectio divina or loving-kindness meditation), recorded by the first author; and multiple-choice attention check (e.g., “To monitor quality, please respond with a ‘3’ rating to this item”) and comprehension (e.g., “In the Module 1 introduction video, what is one of the goals for lectio divina”) questions to ensure participants paid attention to the measures, watched the video, and reviewed the manual. See Tables 4 and 5 for the instructions for the 10-min lectio divina and loving-kindness meditation practices, respectively…”

“…The six-item Christian Gratitude Scale is an emic assessment instrument that assesses a distinctly Christian form of thankfulness (Knabb, Vazquez, Wang, et al, 2021). A 6-point Likert scale is used ( strongly disagree to strongly agree ), with sample items including “I should thank God daily for his forgiveness” and “I often feel grateful for God for his daily gifts.” In the original psychometric study, the scale displayed adequate internal consistency reliability and was strongly correlated with general gratitude and mental well-being (Knabb, Vazquez, Wang, et al, 2021). Cronbach’s α for Study 1 was .82.…”

Reliability and validity of the Greek version of the Short Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (S-GRAT-GR)

“…The State Gratitude Scale (Spence et al, 2014) is a 5-item unidimensional scale, that assesses the actual experience of gratitude, conceptualized as a transitory state that is discrete and episodic in nature. The Functionality Appreciation Scale (Alleva et al, 2017) and the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (Tylka, 2013) assess the appreciation for one's body, while the 6-item Christian Gratitude Scale (CGS) is developed to assess gratitude to God among Christian populations, operationalized from within the Christian tradition (Knabb et al, 2021).…”