The teenagers who learn to recognize and appreciate the positive things of life tend to suffer less than depression: this is what emerges from a study published on The Journal of Positive Psychology. Research underlines that Gratitude, connected to an increase in self -esteem, acts as a “antidepressant” natural for the youngest.
The study. For two years, scholars followed 564 students (initially thirteen -year -olds) of two first degree secondary schools of Guangzhou, China. After completing a series of questionnaires aimed at measuring their levels of gratitude, self -esteem and depression, the participants were divided – on the basis of the answers – in four groups: 36% of them showed low levels of gratitude during both analyzed years; About 30% started with high levels of gratitude that they continued to increase slightly over time; 24% started from high levels of gratitude which however decreased over time; Finally, 11%went from being not very grateful to be more at the end of the school cycle.
Grateful. Starting from these results, scholars have tried to understand how these different trends were connected to the levels of children’s depression, discovering that Who had reported to feel very grateful at the end of the study – regardless of whether it was from the beginning or that it had become over time – He had turned out to be less depressed. On the contrary, students whose gratitude had decreased over time or that they had always been not very grateful have turned out to be more depressed.
The importance of self -esteem. Behind this apparently close relationship between gratitude and depression, however, there would be another key sentiment – Self -esteem: appreciating the positive things of life would increase self -esteem, and this in turn would act as a shield against depression. In fact, therefore, The only function of gratitude would be to help students have greater confidence in themselves.
The results support the so-called “Broaden-and-and-bild theory” (literally “expands and built”), according to which positive emotions help people develop psychological resources that protect them in difficult times of life against negative emotions such as stress or depression.
