Words Count: Gratitude Writing in Early Elementary School

Abstract

Gratitude writing exercises are a common tool used to promote gratitude. However, understanding of the specific writing features that are associated with written expressions of gratitude is limited. In this study, we investigated how fundamental characteristics (words, punctuation marks) of early elementary student’s writing relate to their gratitude. Specifically, we reexamined a subset of data from Nguyen and Gordon (J Happ Stud 25(34), 2024). The data included 4932 gratitude expressions composed by kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and third graders (N = 2806) who had participated in an annual community writing activity that prompted them to write about what they were thankful for. During this activity teachers submitted students’ writing to local newspapers for publication and circulation online. We found that the number of gratitude categories expressed by students correlated with features of their writing, namely word count and punctuation marks. We also found that student grade level influenced the breadth of gratitude categories they wrote about. These findings have implications for education, providing a basis for developing innovative classroom gratitude writing activities that may foster students’ gratitude across a myriad of categories.