More Grateful Today, Less Depressive Tomorrow: The Day-to-Day Association Between Gratitude and Depressed Mood

Objective: Previous research has documented a negative between-person association between gratitude and depressed mood. However, how gratitude relates to depressed mood at the within-person level remains less understood. The current study aimed to revisit the association between gratitude and depressed mood using a daily diary approach and examine the potential moderating effects of trait gratitude, neuroticism, and extraversion.

Method: Our sample consisted of 243 college students (M = 19.12), who reported their daily levels of gratitude and depressed mood for 14 days. There is a final sample of 3384 diaries.

Results: The multilevel cross-lagged path analysis revealed that gratitude was negatively associated with depressed mood on the subsequent day. This result remained consistent after controlling for well-being from the previous day. Furthermore, trait gratitude, neuroticism, and extraversion did not moderate the relationship between gratitude on day n-1 and depressed mood on day n.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the benefits of gratitude in daily life, suggesting that gratitude might function as a protective factor in mitigating depressed mood.