Effects of Parents’ Dispositional Gratitude on Adolescents’ Dispositional Gratitude: A Comparison of Boys and Girls
AUTHOR : 김주현,임정하
INFORMATION : page. 19~37 / 2016 Vol.23 No.4
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the level of dispositional gratitude of families with adolescent
children and to investigate the effects of parents’ dispositional gratitude on adolescents’ dispositional
gratitude. Self-reported data on dispositional gratitude were obtained from 353 adolescents and their
biological parents. The data were analyzed using paired t-tests, Pearson’s correlations, and hierarchical
regression analyses. The major findings were as follows. First, the average level of gratitude of mothers
was higher than that of fathers. In addition, there were significant differences in the level of gratitude
between fathers and daughters, as well as between mothers and sons. Second, the gratitude of both fathers
and mothers were related to the gratitude of their adolescent children. In particular, the dispositional
gratitude of fathers was the most meaningful factor in explaining the level of gratitude in adolescent boys
while that of mothers was the most meaningful factor in explaining its level in adolescent girls. These
results suggest that parents’ dispositional gratitude plays an important role in the development of
dispositional gratitude in adolescent children. The importance of a parent of the same sex as the child was
discussed to the promote the level of dispositional gratitude for adolescents.