Believing in Yourself Matters! The Impact of Classroom Gratitude Week Intervention on Self-Regulation: The Role of Self-Esteem and Self-Effectiveness

Background: Gratitude-based interventions have been examined by numerous past studies and were confirmed to significantly reduce adverse mental health outcomes, e.g., distress, negative emotions, depressive mood, and anxiety and to increase positive aspects, e.g., life satisfaction, positive emotions, and quality of relationships. Yet, minimal research has examined classroom-specific gratitude expression interventions, and to our knowledge, none of them have tested their effectiveness on adolescents self-regulation processes. Objective: Thus, in the current study, we assessed the impact of Classroom Gratitude Intervention on changes in self-regulation. Methods: Surveyed Polish adolescents participated in classroom-specific gratitude expression intervention at school (N = 149, 54 girls), and divided into three subgroups regarding the level of two indicators of self-constructs. Results: There was a significant decrease in cognitive self-regulation from pre- to post-intervention. However, we observed an increase in self-regulation among low self-esteem students, a decrease in self-regulation among those with medium self-esteem, and no significant changes among youths with high self-esteem. We also documented an increase in behavioral self-regulation among low self-efficiency students, and a decrease in emotional regulation among high self-efficiency students. Gratitude positively predicted changes in emotional and behavioral regulation, and negatively in cognitive regulation. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the effectiveness of a classroom-specific gratitude intervention in enhancing self-regulation directly depends on self-constructs, and is more beneficial for adolescents with low self-esteem.