Parental Gratitude and Adolescent Anomie and Hope

Abstract

The contribution of parental gratitude to the adolescent’s hope is plausible in light of social integration theory but empirically unverified. According to the theory, parental gratitude facilitates an integrative social environment for the adolescent to sustain hope. The theory also suggests that the adolescent’s anomie or normlessness, as a negative indicator of social integration, is a mediator of the contribution. To verify the contributions, the present study surveyed 310 pairs of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents and their parents. In each of the pairs, the adolescent reported his or her hope and anomie, whereas the parent reported his or her gratitude. Supporting the theory, results demonstrated the contribution of parental gratitude to adolescent hope through mediation by adolescent anomie. Specifically, parental gratitude showed a negative effect on adolescent hope, which in turn displayed a negative effect on adolescent hope. The results imply the value of promoting parental gratitude particularly and social integration generally for sustaining adolescent hope.