TITLE:
Gratitude Diary: The Impact on Depression Symptoms
AUTHORS:
Yuxia Chen, Zahari Ishak
KEYWORDS:
Gratitude, Depression, Positive Emotion, Intervention, Gratitude Diary
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.13 No.3,
March
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: In order to explore the effect of gratitude diary intervention on depression, 156 female college students participated in a one-month intervention of gratitude diary experiment. Using Beck Depression Rating Scale and Gratitude Questionnaire to assess the degree of gratitude tendency and deceptive emotion. The results showed that keeping a gratitude diary can significantly improve students’ gratitude level (t (305) = -3.94, p p 2 (1) = 3.97, p 2 (1) = 2.36, p > 0.05). At the same time, one week after the pos-intervention, there was no significant difference in the level of gratitude (t (297) = 0.24, p > 0.05) and depression (t (297) = 1.23, p > 0.05), indicating that the intervention effect of gratitude diary can be sustained. Therefore, it can prevent depression and maintain students’ mental health by guiding students to keep a gratitude diary or recall grateful things.