| Asian American families often encounter challenges that result in higher risk for poor mental health and greater family conflict (e.g., Dinh, 2000; B. S. K. Kim, Ahn, & Lam, 2009). Several interventions have been proposed to promote cultural understanding and better relationships between Asian American parents and children (see Shin & Wong, 2013 for review). However, to date, no study has examined the potential benefits of a gratitude intervention that addresses Asian American parent-child relationships.;To address this literature gap, this study examined the effects of a gratitude writing intervention on Asian American and White American emerging young adults' psychological well-being and feelings of gratitude toward their parents. Given the interpersonal nature of the gratitude intervention, I hypothesized that race and familial collectivism would moderate the effects of the intervention, such that Asian Americans and participants with high levels of familial collectivism would benefit more from the intervention.;Participants were 275 Asian Americans and 306 White Americans between 18-25 years old who had at least one parent who was alive. Participants completed an online survey twice two weeks apart. In the first online survey, participants completed measures on demographics, positive and negative affect, psychological distress, generic gratitude, gratitude towards parents, quality of parent-child relationships, and familial collectivism. After completing these measures, participants were randomly assigned to either a control condition (writing objective facts about their parents) or a gratitude condition (writing a gratitude letter to their parents). In the second survey, all participants completed measures on their positive and negative affect, psychological distress, general gratitude, and gratitude towards parents. The gratitude condition had a buffering effect on participants' positive affect two weeks after the intervention and several significant interaction effects suggested that gratitude writing was effective for certain groups of individuals. The findings of this study were discussed in terms of clinical implications for improving parent-child relationships and mental health in Asian American families. |
