Gratitude Diary: The Impact on Depression Symptoms

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 < 0.001, d = 0.45) and reduce their depression (t (305) = 2.06, p < 0.05, d = 0.24). Further Chi-square tests showed that gratitude diary significantly reduced the number of subjects with mild depression (χ 2 (1) = 3.97, p < 0.05, w = 0.14), but not moderate to severe depression (χ 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), indi-cating that the intervention effect of gratitude diary can be sustained. There-fore, it can prevent depression and maintain students’ mental health by guid-ing students to keep a gratitude diary or recall grateful things.