Resilience and Loss: The Correlation of Grief and Gratitude

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between cultivating gratitude and coping with grief. The primary research question guiding this study was: What is the correlation between resilience in grief, transcendent gratitude, and nondual awareness? Five measures were administered to collect data for this study: Grief and Meaning Reconstruction Inventory, Adult Attitude to Grief Scale, Gratitude Questionnaire 6, Transpersonal Gratitude Scale and Nondual Awareness Dimensional Assessment. A diverse demographic pool of survey respondents ( n = 619) was recruited to determine what correlations might emerge from the data. Bivariate correlational analysis revealed strong correlations among total scores and specific subscales of grief, gratitude, and nondual awareness. Subscale correlations suggested positive correlations among transcendence, valuing a relationship, resilience, and personal growth; and negative correlations with efforts to control the overwhelming emotions associated with grief. Nondual awareness showed moderate correlations with resilience and personal growth, pointing to the centrality of whole-person transcendence in the association of gratitude with flourishing after profound loss. A regression model demonstrated that gratitude and nondual awareness predicted resilience in coping with grief. Conclusions include the potential value of pre-loss cultivation gratitude to enhancing competence in coping with grief.