Does gratitude work at school? Piloting the modified interventions for managing academic stress in Pakistani high schools

The present research measures the effectiveness of gratitude interventions in dealing with academic stress and daily hassles among Pakistani high school students. A total of 162 students randomly assigned in experimental (82) and control groups (80) took part in a four week interventions program. The gratitude interventions included Count Your Blessings, writing Gratitude Letters, and Loving Kindness Meditations which were modified & adapted into Urdu. The pretest and posttest assessment was done. The results of paired sample t-test showed significant decrease in academic expectation scores (t = 5.76**, M1 + SD1 = 31.44 + 6.56, M2 + SD2 = 27.30 + 6.75) with medium effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.65), and also for daily hassles decrease. Further results showed high level of stress about personal future, academic concerns and excessive social demands which were decreased after interventions. This study supports the use of gratitude interventions in school setting especially in developing country like Pakistan where structured counseling services are limited.