Examining the influence of a gratitude journal intervention on university students’ psychological wellbeing and engagement (a pilot study)

A pilot study was conducted to examine the effects of a two-week gratitude intervention on participants’ engagement, gratitude, and life satisfaction. Five university students were randomly assigned to either the experimental gratitude journal condition or the control happiness journal condition. We found significant improvements in gratitude across both groups, but not for engagement or life satisfaction. Moreover, while the experimental gratitude journal group showed greater gains in all outcomes relative to the control happiness journal group, the differences were not statistically significant. These preliminary results indicate some merit in reflective journal activity (especially where the focus is on gratitude) and welcome future attempts at replication with larger and more diverse samples