Is Gratitude Decrease Stress among Early Adult?

Erlis Manita, Marty Mawarpury, Maya Khairani and Kartika Sari

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia

Keywords: Stress, Gratitude, Early Adults, Aceh

Abstract: Stress is one of the potential risk factors for mental disorders. Meanwhile, one of the ways to deal with stress

was being grateful.This study aims to determine the correlation between stress and gratitude in early adults in

Aceh. The method of this research using a quantitative approach with a correlational method. This study

involved 349 early adults with an age range of 20-40 years old were selected through nonprobability sampling.

Individual stress level was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and gratitude was measured

using the Indonesian Gratitude Scale. Data analysis using correlation analysis Spearman-Brown Formula with

result of coefficient (r) = -0,537 and significance value (p) = 0,000 (p<0,05). These results indicated that there

was a significant negative correlation between gratitude with stress among early adults. It's assumed

that.higher gratitude, lower stress, and vise versa. It showed that grateful people will focus on things that are

grateful not on the existing stressor, so this causes a low level of stress.

1 INTRODUCTION

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2013) states

that one of the biggest risk factors that cause the

emergence of mental disorders is stress. Surveys

conducted in the United States showed that millennial

age groups (18 - 33 years) and generation X (34 - 47

years) are the group with the highest average stress

level (American Psychological Association [APA],

2012). This age range is included in young adult

agewhich is 20 to 40 years (Papalia, Olds & Feldman,

1998). In 2017, a survey conducted in the United

Kingdom (UK) showed that 74% of the UK

population felt very stressed, with a variety of

different stressors for each individual (Mental Health

Foundation [MHF], 2018). In Indonesia, concerns

about the inability of individuals to manage stress

properly are show in the high rate of suicides. It is

estimated that there are around 82 suicides occurring

in Indonesia every day (Bahali, 2016). The following

two suicides in Indonesia are thought to be caused by

stress due to pressure received in work situations,

namely the suicide of a bank employee, a 26-year-old

woman in early 2018 (Baskoro, 2018) and a suicide

case committed by 33-year-old male an Uber Inc.’s

employee (Prihadi, 2017).

The most common stressors are relationship

problems, finances, work pressure, lack of sleep, and

insufficient nutrition (Byrnes, 2018). Based on a

survey conducted by a health insurance company

(Cigna) involving 1,000 people in 23 countries

showed that 86% of respondents from all countries

said they had experienced stress, while in Indonesia it

was 75% (Cahya, 2018). Judging from gender,

women are more easily stressed than men, and the

most common cause of stress in women is financial,

while men are job stress (Forth, 2018).

Someone who is not able to manage stress

properly, it will have a negative impact on behavior,

physical, and psychological health. Impacts on

behaviors such as overeating, eating unhealthy foods,

drinking liquor, and smoking, while psychological

effects such as feelings of depression, anxiety, self-

harm, the emergence of feelings and thoughts of

suicide, and feelings of loneliness (MHF 2018). One

effort to deal with stress is to be grateful, gratitude

can reduce the negative effects of stress and may have

a positive long-term effect on mental health (Krejtz,

Nezlek, Michnicka, & Holas, 2016).

Gratitude is a tendency to recognize and respond

to feelings of gratitude for the role of the goodness of

others in positive experiences and the results obtained

(McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). Some

literature states that gratitude or remember things to

be thankful for can increase a significant impact on

current happiness and hope in the future (Witvliet,

Richie, Luna, & Tongeren, 2018). Furthermore,

research conducted by Leary and Dockray in 2015

Manita, E., Mawarpury, M., Khairani, M. and Sari, K.

Is Gratitude Decrease Stress among Early Adult?.

DOI: 10.5220/0009437600610065

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychology (ICPsy 2019), pages 61-65

ISBN: 978-989-758-448-0

showed that gratitude intervention is the most

effective intervention to reduce stress, meanwhile,

mindfulness interventions are the most effective for

reducing depression and increase happiness. Previous

studies also supported that gratitude was related to

increasing the welfare of individuals and reducing

symptoms of depression, including research

conducted by Martinez-Marti, Avia, and Hernandez-

Lloreda in 2010 indicating that gratitude

interventions had an impact on wellbeing.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Stress

The term stress was first introduced in health

psychology by Hans Selye in 1926, which is the non-

specific response of the body to any demands on its

burden (Baqutayan, 2015). The emergence of stress is

also influenced by the individual's assessment of a

situation or event, as stated by Lazarus and Folkman

(1984) which defines stress as a relationship between

individuals and the environment that is judged by

someone as a demand or inability to face-threatening

or dangerous situations. The concept of stress is

known as the transactional model, namely, stress is

considered as the interaction between individuals and

their environment (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The

transactional meaning of stress also emphasizes

subjective judgment, so that the same stimulus can

produce different interpretations, responses, and

coping strategies among individuals with different

experiences and personality traits (Ng, 2013).

In accordance with the stress theory of the

transactional model presented by Lazarus, then

Cohen and Williamson (1988) developed a measuring

device Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) that measures

the extent to which an event is valued as stressed by

someone. The original scale of the Perceived Stress

Scale was developed in 1983 by Cohen, Kamarck,

and Mermelstein with reference to the perspective of

Lazarus theory(1966, 1977) which states that stress is

determined by one's perception of their stress. The

development of the PSS scale is also due to the fact

that the theoretical perspective on stress perception

was not accompanied by the development of valid

measurement tools to measure perceived stress

(Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983).

Perceived stress is an individual's assessment of

an event that is considered as stress (Cohen et al.,

1983). Perceived stress includes individual feelings

about things that cannot be controlled and predicted

in a person's life, how often someone is exposed to

difficulties, changes that occur in life, and beliefs in

the ability to deal with problems (Cohen et al., 1983).

Lazarus (in Cohen, et al., 1983) revealed that a

person's stress level is determined by one's perception

of stress. The general situation in life is considered as

stressful when unpredictable, uncontrollable, or

overloading. The perceived stress reflects stress

levels experienced as a function of objective stressful

events, coping processes and personality factors

(Cohen et al., 1983).

2.2 Gratitude

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the

English Language, the origin of the word gratitude is

from Latin, namely gratus or gratitude which means

thankfulness or praise (pleasing), whereas in

Indonesian thank you can be combined with gratitude

(Listiyandini, Nathania, Syahniar, Sonia, & Nadya,

2015). McCullough, et al., (2002) define gratitude as

one of the psychological conditions as an emotion,

attitude, moral virtue, personality trait, or a way of

responding that can contribute to mental health.

Furthermore, according to Watkins, Woodward,

Stone, and Kolts (2003) gratitude is a feeling that

encourages to thank and appreciate the pleasure that

has been received, giving rise to calm,

psychologically satisfied conditions.

The concept of gratitude that is formed in

individuals cannot be separated from the learning

process that leads to one value, very closely related to

the cultural, religious and philosophical values that

surround it (Haryanto & Kertamuda, 2016).

Listiyandini, et al., (2015) define gratitude as a

feeling of gratitude, happiness, and appreciation for

things that have been gained during life, both from

God, humans, other creatures, and the universe,

which then encourages someone to do the same as

obtained. Then Listiyandini, et al. (2015) suggested

that several scales developed in the West to measure

gratitude generally did not explicitly mention aspects

of divinity. Some of these measures raise the

spirituality of gratitude without involving the terms

and roles of God in them and prioritizing terms such

as the role of nature, the world, and others 'strengths'

outside of humans. The same thing was stated by

Haryanto and Kertamuda (2016) that a fairly basic

difference regarding the concept of gratitude in

western literature in the form of an emphasis on the

existence of God as an important party in

understanding gratitude.

This research refers to the definition of gratitude

which is explained by this because the definition is

quite representative in describing gratitude to

ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology

Indonesian people. In addition, researchers want to

see the level of individual gratitude that can be

expressed by the Indonesian version of the grateful

scale developed by Listiyandini et al. (2015) that has

been adapted to the cultural context in Indonesia.

3 RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Design and Research Sample

This study uses a quantitative method that is

correlational, which aims to see the relationship

between one variable with another variable.

Participants in this study were young adults (ages 20-

40 years) who were domiciled in Aceh.

Determination of samples in this study using a

nonprobability sampling method with incidental

sampling technique. This study involved 349

participants (F = 264, M = 84).

3.2 The Research Instrument

a. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

The PSS-10 consists of 10 items with 6 favorite

items and 4 unique items. Assessment on this

scale is done using a Likert scale with five

alternative choices, namely, 0 never, 1 almost

never, 2 sometimes, 3 quite often, up to 4 very

often. The reliability of the PSS gauge in this

sample is (Cronbach's alpha = 0.804).

b. The Scale of Grateful Indonesia (SBI)

Gratitude is measured using the Indonesian

version of the grateful scale (Listiyandini et al.,

2015). This scale consists of 30 items with 6

available answer choices, namely 1-6 (very

inappropriate to very suitable). The reliability of

the SBI gauge in this sample is (Cronbach’s alpha

= 0.904).

3.3 The Data Analysis

Data analysis was performed to answer the problem

statement or test the hypotheses that have been

formulated (Sugiyono, 2012). Data that has been

collected, tabulated and then processed with the help

of Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS)

ver. 25.0 for Windows. Test the assumptions in this

study using the normality test using Kolmogorov-

Smirnov (K-S) and linearity using test for linearity,

hypothesis testing is done using analysis Spearman-

Brown Formula to find out the correlation between

stress variables and gratitude.

4 RESULT

Table 1: Demographic Data of Praticipants

Demographic

Data

Total Percentage

(%)

Sex

Female 264 75,6

Male 85 24,4

Age

20-30

335 96

31-40 year 15 4

The study involved 349 participants with early

adults ages 20 to 40 years in Aceh (M= 22,20 year).

There were 75.6% female and 24.4% male.

4.1 Assumption Test

The normality test is done to find out whether the

population of the data is normally distributed or not

by using statistical techniques, namely One Sample

Kolmogoro Smirnov. The results of the normality test

show that the stress variable has a significance value

(p) = 0.073 and gratitude variable has a significance

value (p) = 0.000. . This means that stress variables

have a normal distribution of data, while the

distribution of gratitude variable data is not normally

distributed.

Linearity test is done by using a test for linearity

which aims to determine whether two variables

significantly have a relationship with each other. two

variables are called linear if the significance value is

less than 0.05 (Priyatno, 2011). The results of the

linearity test show a significance value (p) of 0.00 (p

<0.05) so that it can be conclude that two variables

were significantly linear.

4.2 Hypothesis Test

The assumption test results show that the research

data were not normally and linearly distributed, so

hypothesis testing was use a nonparametric method,

namely the Spearman-Brown Formula correlation.

The results have shown that the value of the

correlation was (r) = - 0.537 with a significance value

p = 0.000 (p <0.05). Based on these results it can be

interpreted that there was a significant negative

relationship between stress and gratitude in early

adults in Aceh. This can be interpreted that the higher

intensity of gratitude, the lower level of stress.

Is Gratitude Decrease Stress among Early Adult?

5 DISCUSSION

This study aims to determine the relationship between

stress and gratitude in early adults in Aceh. Based on

the results of data analysis showed that there was a

significant negative relationship between stress and

gratitude (r = -0,519; p = 0,000) in early adults in

Aceh, thus the proposed research hypothesis was

accepted. Based on these results it can be interpreted

that when a person has a high level of gratitude then

the individual's stress level will be low, conversely if

the individual's level of gratitude is low then the stress

level will be high.The results of this study are

supported by previous research which found that

there was a significant negative relationship between

gratitude and stress Kumar, Verma, & Deba, 2019).

The term stress can be interpreted differently by

everyone. Some people define stress as an event or

situation that causes tension, pressure, or negative

emotions such as anxiety and anger. Some others see

stress in response to this situation. This response

includes physiological changes (such as increased

heart rate and muscle tension) and emotional and

behavioral changes (Baqutayan, 2015). Various

things can be sources of stress or causes of stress in

each individual. These sources of stress are very

numerous and very individual. Things that can cause

stress also depend on individual perceptions of things

that are experienced (Segal, Smith, Segel &

Robinson, 2019). Most individuals experience stress

at some point in their lives, some individuals

experience stress more often than others, and some

individuals have difficulty dealing with its effects

(Loseby, 2019).

Krejt, Nezlek, Michnicka, Holas, and

Rusanowska (2016) found that individuals who focus

every day on the things they are grateful to reducing

their reactions to stress. Gratitude is an emotion that

is felt when someone realizes the good things that

happen in life and appreciates them (Alkozei, Smith

& Killgore, 2017).

6 CONCLUSIONS

This study aims to determine the relationship between

gratitude and stress in early adulthood in Banda Aceh.

The results of the statistical analysis support the

hypothesis that there is a significant negative

relationship between gratitude and stress in early

adulthood in Aceh. This means there is an inverse

correlation between gratitude and stress. When

gratitude increases, stress decreases. For this reason,

gratitude can be an alternative way to manage stress

well.

The limitations in this study was in terms of age,

this study is limited to young adults with the majority

of research subjects in the range of 20-30 years, so it

can not express the phenomenon more broadly in

each age range.

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Is Gratitude Decrease Stress among Early Adult?