How to Raise Grateful Children

The Harvard EdCast

What does it mean to raise a grateful child? Developmental scientist and psychologist Andrea Hussong from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says it’s a lot more than teaching your child about basic manners. In fact, it’s a lot deeper than that and parents play a crucial role in modeling gratitude, how they create opportunities for children to experience gratefulness, and even talking to their children about it.

After studying parents and children, she recognized components of gratitude: what we notice, how we think or feel about it, what we do and how we enact grateful behaviors.

“One of the big things that gratitude does that I think is so important for kids is it helps us find people in our environment that care about us.” Hussong says. “It strengthens our relationship with them, and it makes that support network surround us with a little more care. And we know social support is so important, particularly now, when we're dealing with these pandemics of loneliness and isolation. We really need that.”

In this episode of the EdCast, Hussong shares strategies that can help your child develop a deeper understanding of gratitude, how you can foster it in the hearts and minds of your children, and the way to pivot as your child becomes a teenager. She also addresses the potential impact of gratitude on mental health.