The Quiet Power of Gratitude: What New Data Tell Us About Schools, Formation, and Flourishing

Gratitude may seem like a soft virtue: one that would be nice to have, but hardly essential for living in today’s fast-paced, media-driven, and tech-saturated world. Yet for centuries, philosophers and theologians have argued the opposite.

Cicero famously called gratitude not only the greatest of virtues, but “the parent of all the others.” Karl Barth wrote that gratitude and grace “belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning.” Now in the age of validated psychological scales and MRI scans, psychologists and neuroscientists are confirming what these thinkers and theologians intuited long ago.

A new report based on the Cardus Education Survey (CES), The Measure of Thanks: Connecting Schooling, Gratitude, and Life Outcomes, adds fresh insight to this conversation. By looking at the levels of gratitude reported by nearly 2,400 adults aged 24–39 (along with data on their relationships, mental health, civic engagement, and volunteerism), the CES illuminates something educators have long suspected: the habits of heart and mind formed during the K–12 years shape not only what graduates know, but how they live.

Gratitude as a lasting disposition

The CES measures gratitude through a single, validated item: “I have so much in life to be thankful for.” Respondents could select from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The vast majority (92%) agreed at some level. But the most illuminating differences emerged when looking at those who “strongly agreed.” 

Here we see meaningful variation. A higher percentage of graduates from independent schools (whether Protestant, Catholic, or nonreligious) reported the strongest levels of gratitude than graduates of traditional public schools. Homeschool graduates looked similar to public school graduates on this measure. (See Figure 1.)

But here’s an important nuance: differences narrow when we account for the factors that shape a child before they ever set foot in school. The CES found that growing up outside of material poverty, being female, and being raised in a religious home all significantly predicted higher levels of gratitude in adulthood. In fact, being raised in a religious home had the largest effect of all, by a striking 14-percentage-point difference.

These findings mean we cannot claim that school sector determines graduates’ levels of gratitude. But we can say that graduates from certain school sectors (particularly religious and independent ones) are more likely to end up among the most grateful adults, even after adjusting for demographic differences. More importantly, the CES reinforces what philosophers have been telling us for centuries: gratitude is not simply a personality trait. It is formed in and by communities, practices, and ways of seeing the world that are cultivated over time.

Why gratitude matters for human flourishing

Of course, gratitude is valuable not only because it may feel good, but because of what it likely produces. Here, the CES findings are deeply instructive. Across every outcome examined (i.e., life satisfaction, close social relationships, generosity, volunteering, and even reduced depression and anxiety), graduates who reported the highest gratitude also reported substantially more positive results. These findings held even after accounting for background demographics and school sector.

Specifically, as compared with their peers who did not report high levels of gratitude, thankful adults—

• scored higher on the Satisfaction with Life Scale (4.52, compared with 3.32 for those who did not strongly agree they had much to be thankful for).
• achieved a higher Close Social Relationships Score (4.59, compared with 3.59), reflecting warmer friendships, stronger community belonging, and greater confidence that someone would help them in a crisis.
• were 21 percentage points more likely to have donated to charity in the previous year.
• placed greater importance on having a job that helps others and on being involved in their community (by 14 percentage points).
• were 6 percentage points more likely to say community involvement is “very important” to them.
• reported lower levels of depression and anxiety on validated screening items (1.80 out of 5, as compared with 2.38 out of 5).
• volunteered in the past year at a higher rate (33 percent versus 18 percent).

The results above are correlational, not causal. But they suggest that gratitude may be linked to the development of capacities that help people flourish as individuals and as contributors to the common good.

What schools can do

For educators, parents, and school leaders, the takeaway is not to chase gratitude as an isolated outcome. Instead, it’s to invest in the deeper practices that naturally foster it: daily rituals of reflection, communities that model reciprocity, curriculum that widens moral imagination, and rhythms of service that help students see beyond themselves. Formation is most powerful when it is woven into the texture of school life—shaping identities slowly, deeply, and for the long haul.

When we consider the increasing polarization, loneliness, and mistrust in our societies, cultivating gratitude may feel like a small thing. But the CES data invite us to see it differently. Gratitude is connected to many of the very capacities democracies depend on: people who live with heightened gratitude are more oriented toward service, more connected to their communities, and more generous with their time and resources. These are not only personal virtues; they are civic ones.

At a time when many are asking how education can contribute to a more connected, hopeful, and flourishing society, perhaps we could start here: by helping young people pay attention to what they have been given and learn how to give back in meaningful ways. Our social fabric needs the kinds of people who can say, “I have so much in life to be thankful for”—and live their lives accordingly.