The unique effects of hope and gratitude on psychological distress and well-being in trauma-exposed Hispanic/Latino adults.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Gratitude and hope are well-established predictors of well-being and buffers against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety symptoms. However, scarce literature exists that investigates these relationships in a Hispanic/Latino sample. The current study investigates gratitude's and hope's relationship to PTSD and anxiety symptoms and different domains of well-being in trauma-exposed Hispanic/Latino young adults at a large southern university. METHOD: = 4.3), who endorsed experiencing one or more traumatic events via the Life Events Checklist. Students completed an online survey for course credit. RESULTS: Structural equation models were used to analyze the data. Gratitude had a stronger inverse relationship with PTSD symptoms (β = -.43, 95% CI [-0.50, -0.35]) and anxiety symptoms (β = -.28, 95% CI [-0.36, -0.20]) compared to hope (β = .06, 95% CI [-0.01, 0.14]) (β = -.06, 95% CI [-0.14, 0.02]). Both gratitude and hope were robust predictors of the three domains of well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The current study found that hope and gratitude predicted resilience in trauma-exposed Hispanic/Latino young adults. Decreased levels of gratitude were a stronger predictor of psychological distress and subjective well-being than decreased levels of hope, but hope was a robust predictor of the three well-being domains. The findings of this study may lend support for the development of hope and gratitude interventions in a Hispanic/Latino population for the prevention of PTSD symptoms and anxiety symptoms via engendering higher levels of resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

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