Dispositional gratitude and well-being across cultural contexts: evidence from American and Korean college students

Gratitude has been widely studied as a psychological strength associated with well-being, but cross-cultural variations in these associations remain insufficiently understood. The present study examined similarities and differences in the relationships between dispositional gratitude and multiple indicators of subjective and psychological well-being among college students in the United States and South Korea, two countries often characterized as relatively individualistic and collectivistic, respectively. Data were collected through a web-based survey of 307 American and 306 Korean college students. Independent samples t -tests revealed significant cross-cultural differences in the mean levels of all study variables. Correlation analyses showed that dispositional gratitude was positively associated with all indicators of well-being in both countries. Fisher’s z tests indicated that the associations between gratitude and several well-being indicators, including negative affect, environmental mastery, and personal growth, were significantly stronger among American students than those among Korean students. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that indebtedness did not moderate the relationship between dispositional gratitude and life satisfaction in either cultural group. These findings suggest that dispositional gratitude is consistently associated with well-being across cultures, although the strength of these associations may vary by cultural context. The results highlight both the generalizability of the association between gratitude and well-being and the cultural variability in its strength, providing insight into how this association differs across cultural contexts.