Childhood Predictors of Gratitude in Adulthood: A Cross-National Analysis of 22 Countries in the Global Flourishing Study

Little empirical research has explored early-life experiences that may lead to higher gratitude levels in adulthood. Using data from 202,898 adults in 22 countries, we evaluated potential childhood candidate antecedents of gratitude. We examined the associations between retrospectively reported childhood experiences and adult gratitude in each country, separately and cross-nationally by pooling results across countries. Our pooled cross-country results suggest that having positive relationships with mothers and fathers, higher subjective financial status, being an immigrant, better childhood self-rated health, more frequent religious service attendance, an earlier year of birth, and being female were associated with higher adult gratitude. Conversely, lower adult gratitude was associated with childhood experiences of parental divorce or growing up in a single-parent household, abuse, financial hardship, and feeling like an outsider in the family. However, country-specific analyses showed substantial between-country variations in these associations, suggesting diverse societal influences. This study provides valuable insights into the association between early-life experiences and adult gratitude levels across national contexts.