Subjective well-being of Hong Kong Chinese teachers: The contribution of gratitude, forgiveness, and the orientations to happiness

Teaching and Teacher Education 32 (2013) 22e30

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Subjective well-being of Hong Kong Chinese teachers: The contribution of gratitude, forgiveness, and the orientations to happiness David W. Chan* Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

h i g h l i g h t s < Subjective well-being, gratitude, and forgiveness were substantially correlated. < Gratitude and forgiveness predicted well-being above orientations to happiness. < Forgiveness was the significant and strongest predictor of negative affect. < Integrating gratitude and forgiveness into teacher stress intervention is promising.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 14 July 2012 Received in revised form 4 December 2012 Accepted 27 December 2012

This study investigated whether gratitude and forgiveness contribute to subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) above the contribution of the three orientations to happiness in a sample of 143 Hong Kong Chinese teachers. Gratitude and forgiveness correlated substantially and significantly with each other, with the meaningful-life orientation, and with subjective well-being. They explained a substantial amount of variance in the prediction of subjective well-being above orientations to happiness. These findings and the notable contribution of forgiveness to negative affect were discussed in the context of developing effective positive interventions for enhancement of subjective well-being among teachers. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Character strengths Chinese teachers Forgiveness Gratitude Orientations to happiness Subjective well-being

1. Introduction In response to the disproportionate emphasis of traditional scientific psychology on studies of psychopathology and how people react maladaptively to negative human experiences, positive psychology was established in recent years with the aim to redress the imbalance and increase scientific attention and resources to studies of human positives, human striving, achievements, potentialities, and quality of life (Seligman, 2003; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Wood & Tarrier, 2010). Consequently, there have been great renewed interests in studies of subjective well-being (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005), personal or character strengths (McCullough & Snyder, 2000; Peterson & Seligman, 2004), and how these character strengths can

* Tel.: þ852 3943 1471; fax: þ852 2603 7435. E-mail address: [email protected]. 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.12.005

be used to increase or enhance subjective well-being (Linley & Harrington, 2006; Wood, Linley, Maltby, Kashdan, & Hurling, 2011). Specifically, the study of character strengths and the development of a classification of strengths and virtues are major initiatives of the positive psychology movement. In this connection, Peterson and Seligman (2004) have attempted a classifications of 24 character strengths grouped under six overarching virtues that are claimed to be shared across culture and human history (Dahlsgaard, Peterson, & Seligman, 2005). It is argued that character strengths are natural capacities within individuals, and these strengths, when cultivated and promoted, would allow individuals to achieve optimal functioning and performance, and lead individuals to have better, more satisfying, and more fulfilling life (Linley & Harrington, 2006). Indeed, studies with participants using their best or signature strengths in new ways as an intervention have yielded findings that the intervention could help these participants increase happiness and reduce depressive symptoms (e.g., Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). The effectiveness of this

D.W. Chan / Teaching and Teacher Education 32 (2013) 22e30

and similar strength-based intervention efforts has been interpreted as supporting the need to cultivate and build character strengths because when individuals are allowed to recognize, develop, and celebrate their natural talents and abilities, they will restructure their lives to do more of what they are best at doing for a good or more satisfying life. In education, this positive psychology perspective has also given a new impetus to revisiting the problem of teacher stress and burnout, a severe and prevalent problem that has received widespread recognition as a global concern in the teaching profession (Maslach & Leiter, 1999; Van Dick & Wagner, 2001). Traditionally, teacher stress research has been studied largely from a clinical and pathological perspective with a focus on identifying common stressors in the school settings, assessing the extent and severity of teachers’ negative affective experiences of stress and burnout, and developing intervention strategies to help teachers cope with symptoms of stress and burnout (Kyriacou, 2001; Maslach, 2003). In stark contrast, the positive psychology perspective suggests that the focus of the study on teacher stress should be shifted to the study on teacher wellness or subjective well-being (Hattie, Myers, & Sweeney, 2004), and that intervention efforts could be more productively shifted from coping with symptoms of burnout (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996) to enhancing teachers’ subjective well-being through building positive character strengths (Maslach, 2003; Park & Peterson, 2008). 1.1. Subjective well-being and orientations to happiness Despite that different researchers have used the term subjective well-being in slightly different ways, they tend to accept that it generally involves the subjective evaluation of one’s current status in the world (Snyder & Lopez, 2007). Specifically, Diener (1984, 2000) defines subjective well-being as a construct with three components that include life satisfaction, positive affect or the frequent experiences of pleasant emotions, and a low level of negative affect or a relative absence of unpleasant emotions. This tripartite structure of subjective well-being has received empirical support in subsequent studies (see Arthaud-Day, Rode, Mooney, & Near, 2005; Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2002; Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996). Partly because of its affective component that emphasizes the experience of more pleasant than unpleasant emotions and partly because of its being used synonymously with happiness by some researchers (e.g., Diener et al., 2002; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005), subjective well-being has been viewed as connecting more closely with hedonism than with eudaimonia. Hedonism and eudaimonia are the two traditions of views on what characterizes the good or satisfying life (Ryan & Deci, 2001; Waterman, 1993). Specifically, the former emphasizes maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain whereas the latter emphasizes developing one’s skills and talents to achieve a sense of fulfillment and meaning in life. As the two views are not mutually exclusive, Peterson, Park, and Seligman (2005) suggested that one can endorse both views as two different paths for increasing happiness. Thus, they regarded pleasure (pleasurable life) and meaning (meaningful life) as two orientations to happiness. In addition to these two orientations, they introduced a third distinct orientation of engagement based on Csikszentmihalyi (1990) concept of flow that accompanies highly engaging activities. Since the flow experience is different from the experience of sensual pleasure, and meaningful activities may not necessarily entail the total absorption that defines the flow experience, engagement (engaged life) was suggested as distinct from pleasure and meaning as an independent orientation to happiness in the pursuit of a good life. Indeed, they found supporting evidence that life satisfaction could be significantly predicted by the three orientations, the unique variance contribution

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of the three orientations as additive components being about 12%. These findings have been largely replicated in subsequent studies. For example, Park, Peterson, and Ruch (2009), in a study with adults in 27 nations, found that across all nations, each of the three orientations predicted life satisfaction, with engagement and meaning more robustly associated with life satisfaction. In another study covering all three components of subjective well-being, VellaBrodrick, Park, and Peterson (2009) found that all three orientations significantly predicted each of the three components, with meaning and engagement making the greatest contribution, accounting for the greatest amount of variance in predicting each of the three components of subjective well-being. 1.2. Gratitude, forgiveness, and subjective well-being Apart from the association between the three orientations to happiness and subjective well-being, numerous studies have also suggested that character strengths are associated with subjective well-being, and specific character strengths can contribute significantly to the prediction of subjective well-being. In a pioneering study, Park, Peterson, and Seligman (2004) surveyed 5299 adults using the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths and found that hope, zest, gratitude, love, and curiosity were consistently and robustly associated with life satisfaction. These findings of linkage between individual strengths and life satisfaction have subsequently been extended to findings in other settings that include the United Kingdom (Linley et al., 2007), Switzerland (Peterson, Ruch, Beermann, Park, & Seligman, 2007), Japan (Shimai, Otake, Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2006), and Croatia (Brdar & Kashdan, 2010). 1.2.1. Gratitude, gratitude intervention, and well-being Among the diverse array of character strengths, gratitude and forgiveness which have generally been studied independently from each other have captured the interests and attention of researchers and practitioners (Breen, Kashdan, Lenser, & Fincham, 2010). In general, gratitude is conceptualized as both a disposition and a state or emotion. As a disposition, gratitude is viewed as an enduring characteristic of thankfulness that is sustained across situation and over time (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). Accordingly, grateful individuals would more likely experience and express thankfulness in responding to benefits or gifts from others. As a state, the occurrence of gratitude is typically associated with the perception of receiving an undeserved personal benefit due to the good intentions of another person (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). Numerous studies have established the connection between gratitude and well-being. For example, studies have indicated that gratitude was incompatible with negative emotions and pathological conditions, and could even offer protection against psychiatric conditions. Specifically, gratitude has been found to relate positively with optimism and hope, and negatively with depression, anxiety and envy in nonclinical samples (McCullough et al., 2002). Research findings have also indicated that gratitude could help consolidate and secure supportive social relationships. Specifically, the expression of gratitude could elicit more kindness from a benefactor, as in reinforcing kidney donation (Bernstein & Simmons, 1974), volunteering behavior toward people with HIV/ AIDS (Bennett, Ross, & Sunderland. 1996), and making more visits in a residential treatment program form case managers (Clark, Northrop, & Barkshire, 1988). Thus, experiencing gratitude could be adaptive because it serves to validate the efforts of the benefactors and reinforce more of such efforts. Moreover, it could help the recipients of benefits to reciprocate kindness to benefactors (Bono & McCullough, 2006). Gratitude interventions to increase the experience of gratitude in people have been applied with success. Emmons and McCullough

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D.W. Chan / Teaching and Teacher Education 32 (2013) 22e30

(2003), in their pioneering set of three studies, have shown that selfguided exercises designed to induce gratitude could lead to enhanced well-being over time in participants, compared to those who focused on daily hassles, on downward social comparisons, or on neutral life events. Taken together, these studies suggested that gratitude has a beneficial impact on well-being, and that an effective strategy to enhance well-being is to lead people to count their blessings or to reflect on those aspects of their lives for which they are grateful. The effectiveness of this count-your-blessings and similar approaches has also been supported by subsequent studies with adult clinical and nonclinical populations (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006; Seligman et al., 2005), and with adolescent students (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008) and school teachers (Chan, 2010). 1.2.2. Forgiveness, forgiveness intervention, and well-being Like gratitude, forgiveness is also conceptualized as both a disposition and a state or emotion, and has been defined slightly differently by different scholars (see McCullough, Pargament, & Thoresen, 2000; Worthington, 2005). In general, as a disposition, forgiveness represents a willingness to forgive when one is harmed by others (Berry & Worthington, 2001). As a state, forgiveness could be conceptualized in the context of transgression-related changes toward a transgressor (McCullough, Worthington, & Rachel, 1997). It is believed that forgiveness occurs when victims’ motivations to revenge or to avoid subside despite initial experience of hurt and righteous indignation, and their motivations toward benevolence increase with the desire to restore goodwill with the transgressor. The connection between forgiveness and well-being has been established by numerous studies that focus on people’s physical well-being in relation to forgiveness or unforgiveness (e.g., Lawler et al., 2003; Witvliet, Ludwig, & Van der Laan, 2001). Other studies have found that forgiveness could lead to greater mental well-being as represented in the greater life satisfaction of forgiving people as compared with less forgiving people, and in the greater sense of selfacceptance and purpose in life of divorced or permanently separated mothers who had forgiven the fathers for their transgressions (see Bono & McCullough, 2006). Still other studies have found that forgiveness could be beneficial for relational well-being, considering that the lack of supportive relationships has been associated with a host of psychological and physical diseases (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988). Taken together, it has been suggested that forgiveness could contribute to well-being mainly from its potential to help people repair and preserve supportive and close relationships, especially in highly committed relationships (Karrenmans, Van Lange, Ouwerkerk, & Kluwer, 2003), and in romantic relationships (McCullough et al., 1998). A variety of forgiveness intervention experiments helping people forgive important relationship partners have been applied with success, suggesting that these interventions can successfully promote forgiveness (e.g., McCullough & Worthington, 1995; Murray, 2002; Worthington, Sandage, & Berry, 2000). In particular, these participants at post-intervention became more likely to forgive, showed increased self-esteem, lower levels of depression and anxiety (Hebl & Enright, 1993), improved attitudes toward the people who hurt them, and increased levels of hope (Al-Mabuk, Enright, & Cardis, 1995). In addition, studies have indicated that the forgiveness intervention has reliably produced such benefits (McCullough et al., 1997), and that these benefits could be enduring (Coyle & Enright, 1997; Freedman & Enright, 1996). 1.3. Gratitude and forgiveness in Chinese societies Despite that numerous studies have shown that subjective wellbeing is related to and can be predicted by gratitude (see Emmons &

Crumpler, 2000; Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010; Wood, Joseph, & Maltby, 2008, 2009) and by forgiveness (see Karrenmans et al., 2003; McCullough, 2000), few studies have examined the joint contribution of gratitude and forgiveness to subjective well-being. It is now increasingly recognized that the two are conceptually linked as relational, pro-social, and empathy-based character strengths that are closely associated with physical and psychological health (Breen et al., 2010; Toussaint & Friedman, 2008), and can be meaningfully integrated in the development of effective positive interventions to enhance well-being (Bono & McCullough, 2006). The potential promise of integrating gratitude and forgiveness as two important character strengths in the development of positive intervention strategies has particular relevance in Chinese societies. There is a widespread belief among ordinary Chinese people throughout Chinese history that a righteous person should always express gratitude (bao’en in Chinese) in response to interpersonal benefits and seek vengeance (bao’chou in Chinese) in response to interpersonal transgressions (see Hong, 2007). However, Confucian teachings in the Analects encourage expressing gratitude but discourage seeking vengeance (see Wu, 2003). Indeed, it is said that the thrust of Confucian teachings is ren (often translated as benevolence) and its most important manifestation is in shu (forgiveness) (see Yu, 2009). It is believed that ingratitude and vengeance would lead to social disharmony, and only forgiveness together with gratitude would lead to benevolence, which in turn could restore social harmony. Accordingly, positive intervention approaches based on applying either gratitude or forgiveness but not both will be considered less adequate and possibly less effective. Although the impact of gratitude and forgiveness on social harmony has never been tested empirically, recent studies have suggested that both gratitude (e.g., Chan, 2010) and forgiveness (e.g., Hui & Ho, 2004) are important character strengths that could provide the basis for developing positive interventions for the Chinese people especially among teachers in the school setting. Given that gratitude and forgiveness have only been applied separately to different intervention approaches, it would be of great interest to explore whether gratitude and forgiveness would work together to predict subjective well-being. More specifically, the possibly unique and differential contribution of gratitude and forgiveness to the three different components of subjective well-being could help inform practitioners on the improved development of effective intervention approaches that incorporate both gratitude and forgiveness prevalent in Chinese thinking. 1.4. The present study The present study focused on Hong Kong Chinese teachers who have been under enormous amount of work stress in recent years as a result of the incessant waves of education reform sparked off by close scrutiny and widespread criticisms on the Hong Kong education system (see Education Commission, 2000). With additional duties, fewer resources, and often less recognition for their efforts, teachers have been blamed as the sources of students’ declining academic standards and achievement, and students’ prevalent emotional and behavioral problems (Chan, 2000), and many teachers have been found to experience great stress and even burnout (Chan, 2005). Therefore, there are calls in the teaching profession for developing intervention strategies to help teachers cope with stress and burnout such that they are more able to teach effectively and address students’ learning and social emotional needs. With the positive psychology perspective, the present study focused on teachers’ subjective well-being rather than teacher stress and burnout. The specific character strengths of gratitude and forgiveness were targeted for this study because they have received great research attention and are two important character strengths in interpersonal situations especially in Chinese societies.

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In the school settings, these character strengths might predispose teachers to react or respond in more positive ways especially when they are confronted with stressors and experiencing burnout in relation to interacting with students and colleagues. Further, it could be argued that the components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of personal accomplishment) are diametrically opposites of the good life (the pleasurable life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life) lived by people who cultivate and practice positive character strengths (see Chan, 2011), and strength-based intervention targeting the antithesis of burnout rather than burnout symptoms might be the intervention of choice (e.g., Maslach, 2003; Park & Peterson, 2008). Along these lines, the present study aimed to examine the relationships among subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect), orientations to happiness (pleasure, meaning, and engagement), and the character strengths of gratitude and forgiveness in a sample of Hong Kong Chinese teachers. Specifically, it investigated the joint contribution of the two specific character strengths of gratitude and forgiveness and the three orientations to happiness to each of the three components of subjective well-being, and assessed whether gratitude and forgiveness would each contribute uniquely and differentially to the prediction of the three components of subjective well-being above the contribution of orientations to happiness. Further, because of the nature of the two character strengths, and based on past findings with Hong Kong Chinese teachers (Chan, 2010; Hui & Ho, 2004), it was conjectured that gratitude would make a salient and positive contribution to life satisfaction and positive affect whereas forgiveness would make a salient and negative contribution to negative affect in the prediction of the three components of subjective well-being. It was believed that the findings of unique and possibly differential contribution by gratitude and forgiveness would provide some indirect empirical support for the development of strength-based intervention strategies that promote building and cultivating these specific character strengths to enhance different components of subjective well-being of Hong Kong Chinese teachers and teachers in other cultural settings. Further, such findings could have implications for developing interventions to combat teacher stress and burnout in teacher education programs around the world. 2. Method 2.1. Participants One hundred and forty-five Chinese school teachers enrolled as part-time students in the graduate education program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong responded to an invitation notice posted at the author’s teaching webpage to recruit volunteers to participate in a project involving personal strengths and happiness. One hundred and forty-three teachers (23 men and 120 women) turned up in the scheduled assessment session to participate voluntarily in the study, yielding a response rate of 98.6%. These teachers, who received their in-service training for postgraduate degrees through attending evening courses at the University, were between the ages of 22 and 58 (M ¼ 32.67, SD ¼ 7.13), and reported having 1e32 years of teaching experience (M ¼ 9.93, SD ¼ 7.32, based only on 120 teachers who reported years of teaching experience). 2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Gratitude questionnaire (GQ -6) Participants’ character strength of gratitude was assessed by the GQ-6 (McCullough et al., 2002), the most widely used scale for

25

assessing dispositional gratitude (see Emmons, McCullough, & Tsang, 2003). This 6-item scale assesses four different facets of grateful disposition that include intensity, frequency, span or the variety of life aspects, and density or the number of persons that can elicit grateful feeling. McCullough et al. (2002) reported sound psychometric properties of the scale, including a robust one-factor structure through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent validity peer reports, correlations with well-being, and discriminant validity from related traits. Chan, (2010) has also reported sound psychometric properties of the scale in his study with the Hong Kong Chinese population (Coefficients alpha ¼ .80). In completing the scale, participants were requested to indicate their judgment whether the statement in each item was descriptive of him or her on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (least like me) to 5 (most like me). A total score can be obtained by summing the six item responses (two items are reverse scored), with higher scores reflecting greater dispositional gratitude. 2.2.2. The Heartland forgiveness scale (HFS) Participants’ character strength of forgiveness was assessed by the 18-item HFS (Thompson et al., 2005). The scale assesses dispositional forgiveness with respect to self, others, and situations. Thompson and Snyder (2003) reported sound psychometric properties of the scale, including relatively high internal consistency (Coefficients alpha ranged from .84 to .87), moderately high testretest reliability (three-week, r ¼ .83; nine-month r ¼ .77), and significant correlations with other forgiveness measures. The HFS also correlated significantly with measures of related constructs, including positive correlations with flexibility and trust, and negative correlations with hostility, rumination, and depression. In completing the scale in this study, participants were requested to indicate their judgment as to whether each of the 18 statements was descriptive of them using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (least like me) to 5 (most like me). A total score can be obtained by summing the 18 item responses (nine items are reversed scored), with higher scores reflecting greater disposition to grant forgiveness. 2.2.3. Orientations to happiness scale (OHS) Participants’ views on happiness were assessed using the 18item OHS (Peterson et al., 2005). The OHS items can be scored into three scales: Life of Meaning, Life of Pleasure, and Life of Engagement. Peterson et al. (2005) reported good reliability of the scales (Coefficients alpha ¼ .77 to .88) and good construct validity in their item factor analysis. Chan, (2009a) has also reported sound psychometric properties of the scales in his study with the Hong Kong Chinese population. In completing the OHS, participants responded by indicating their judgment whether each of the 18 statements was descriptive of them using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (least like me) to 5 (most like me). 2.2.4. Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) The 5-item SWLS (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) assesses general life satisfaction as the cognitive aspect of subjective well-being. It reveals the individual’s own judgment of his or her quality of life. The scale has demonstrated high internal consistency (Coefficient alpha ¼ .87), excellent two-month test-retest reliability (r ¼ .82), and convergent and discriminant validity with other measures of subjective well-being, independent ratings of life satisfaction, self-esteem, clinical symptoms, neuroticism, and emotionality (Diener et al., 1985; Lucas et al., 1996; Pavot & Diener, 1993). In completing the scale, participants were requested to indicate their judgment as to whether each of the five statements was descriptive of them using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (least like me) to 5 (most like me). A total score can be obtained by summing the five item responses, with higher scores reflecting

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D.W. Chan / Teaching and Teacher Education 32 (2013) 22e30

greater life satisfaction. The SWLS has been reported to be a valid and reliable scale with the Chinese population (e.g., Chan, 2009a; Shek, Chan, & Lee, 1997). 2.2.5. Positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) The PANAS (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) consists of two scales, one on positive affect and one on negative affect. Each scale contains 10 emotion adjectives which are rated to indicate the respondent’s general perception of the amount of time spent experiencing each emotion. The two scales are reported to be highly internal consistent (Coefficients alpha above .85), largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a two-month time period (Watson et al., 1988). Relatively high reliability has also been reported with its use in the Chinese population (Chan, 2009a). In completing the scales, participants were requested to make their judgments of experiencing the emotions in general on a five-point scale: 1 (not at all), 2 (a little), 3 (moderately), 4 (quite a bit), and 5 (extremely). A total score on positive affect and one on negative affect can be obtained by summing the ratings on the relevant items. 2.3. Procedure

subjective well-being. The pattern of correlations suggested that the more grateful the person, the more likely the person would be forgiving, endorse the meaningful-life orientation, and experience greater life satisfaction, more positive emotions, and relatively less negative emotions. Notably, the strong negative correlation between forgiveness and negative affect, in contrast to the weak negative correlation between gratitude and negative affect, suggested that forgiveness would confer the important benefit of experiencing less negative emotions. These substantial correlations did not seem to have anything to do with gender (as a dummy variable), age, and years of teaching experience, as gender, age, and years of teaching experience did not correlate significantly with any of the variables, and age and years of teaching experience correlated substantially and significantly with each other (r ¼ .88, p < .001). Gender differences on gratitude, forgiveness, the three orientations to happiness, and the three measures of subjective well-being were also examined by conducting independent-samples t-tests. The results indicated that male and female teachers did not score significantly differently on all these variables (p > .05). 3.2. Predicting subjective well-being from demographic variables, orientations to happiness, and gratitude and forgiveness

Participants of this study were invited to come to an assessment session to complete five self-report scales assembled in a questionnaire. The scales were the GQ-6, the HFS, the OHS, the SWLS, and the PANAS. The English versions of these scales were used, as all participants indicated that they had no problems responding in English. All participants completed the questionnaire within half an hour. They were assured that the data would be kept confidential, and would be used for research purposes only. 3. Results 3.1. Gratitude, forgiveness, orientations to happiness, and measures of subjective well-being The item responses of the 143 participants to all measures were first aggregated to yield eight scores based on the GQ-6, the HFS, the three subscales of the OHS, and the three subscales of subjective well-being (SWLS, Positive Affect and Negative Affect from PANAS). Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, and internal consistency of these scales, together with the correlation matrix of these measures. It can be seen that the coefficients alpha as indices of internal consistency of these scales were of moderately high values, ranging from .71 to .87, suggesting that these variables were all reliably assessed. Gratitude and forgiveness correlated substantially and significantly with each other, and particularly with the meaningful-life orientation, and with all three measures of

To explore and evaluate the separate contribution of demographic variables, orientations to happiness, gratitude, and forgiveness to the prediction of subjective well-being, three sets of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, using these variables as four ordered sets of predictors to predict separately the three criterion variables of subjective well-being. These results are summarized in Table 2. Demographic variables, though not expected to contribute to subjective well-being, were entered first (Step 1) to allow comparison with the contribution of the other variables of interest in subsequent analyses. It can be seen that gender and age did not significantly predict subjective well-being, accounting for only 1%e2% of the variance in the criterion variables. The nonsignifcant results were consistent with the findings that age was not related to the three components of subjective well-being, and there was no gender differences on the three components of subjective well-being. Orientations to happiness added to the prediction with an incremental 15% for life satisfaction, 42% for positive affect, and 4% for negative affect, resulting in significant prediction of life satisfaction and positive affect by the joint contribution of demographic variables and orientations to happiness. The addition of gratitude resulted in significant prediction of life satisfaction and positive affect, with incremental contributions of 4% for life satisfaction and 6% for positive affect. The further addition of forgiveness resulted in significant prediction of all three criterion variables, with incremental contributions of 4% for life satisfaction, 4% for positive affect,

Table 1 Means, standard deviations, internal consistency, and correlations of gratitude, forgiveness, orientations to happiness, and measures of subjective well-being (N ¼ 143). Measure

1

1. Gratitude 2. Forgiveness 3. Life of meaning 4. Life of pleasure 5. Life of engagement 6. Life satisfaction 7. Positive affect 8. Negative affect M SD Coefficient alpha Score range

e

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

.42*** .45*** .19* .16 .34*** .43*** .17* 24.70 3.51 .72 6e30

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

e .20* 35.00 5.24 .82 10e50

e 25.54 6.53 .86 10e50

e .32*** .04 .22** .36*** .46*** .63*** 61.99 8.43 .84 18e90

e .37*** .66*** .37*** .61*** .06 20.90 3.76 .78 6e30

e .35** .20* .26** .14 20.24 3.89 .77 6e30

e .24** .57*** .02 19.64 3.58 .71 6e30

e .38*** .25** 15.87 3.68 .87 5e25

D.W. Chan / Teaching and Teacher Education 32 (2013) 22e30

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Table 2 Hierarchical multiple regression analyses predicting subjective well-being from demographic variables, orientations to happiness, and gratitude and forgiveness (N ¼ 143). Predictor

Gender Age Life of meaning Life of pleasure Life of engagement Gratitude Forgiveness R2 DR2 F

Life satisfaction

Positive affect

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

b

b

b

.03 .14

.04 .16* .38*** .09 .06

.01 .18* .24* .08 .00 .23**

.022 .022 1.58

.170 .148 5.62***

.211 .040 6.05***

Negative affect

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

b

b

b

b

b

.01 .16* .22 .11 .03 .15 .23**

.07 .08

.250 .040 6.44***

.009 .009 .66

.06 .06 .42*** .01 .28**

.10 .08 .25** .01 .36*** .28***

.10 .06 .23* .02 .33*** .19* .24***

.427 .417 20.39***

.485 .058 21.31***

.528 .044 21.61***

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

b

b

b

b

.12 .02

.11 .01 .18 .17 .08

.09 .02 .07 .18* .03 .17

.08 .02 .01 .10 .12 .10 .70***

.014 .014 1.03

.049 .035 1.42

.070 .021 1.71

.450 .380 15.80***

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

and 38% for negative affect. Notably, endorsing an engaged life and the tendency to grant forgiveness were the strong predictors predicting the experience of positive emotions, and forgiveness was the strong predictor predicting the reduction in the experience of negative emotions. These results suggested that while gratitude emerged as a significant predictor in predicting life satisfaction and positive affect before forgiveness was entered as a predictor, forgiveness emerged as a stronger predictor when both gratitude and forgiveness were entered in the prediction. To evaluate the unique contribution of each of the significant predictors for each of the criterion variables (life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect), semi-partial correlations were computed between the respective predictor variable and the respective criterion variable controlling the effects of all other predictors. For life satisfaction, the semi-partial correlations for the two significant predictors were .199 (forgiveness), and .156 (age), suggesting that the unique contributions of forgiveness and age were 4% and 2%, respectively. Similarly, for positive affect, the semipartial correlations for the four significant predictors were .232 (life of engagement), .209 (forgiveness), .153 (gratitude), and .147 (life of meaning), suggesting that the unique contribution of life of engagement, forgiveness, gratitude, and life of meaning were 5%, 4%, 2%, and 2%, respectively. For negative affect, the semi-partial correlation for the single significant predictor was .617 (forgiveness), suggesting that the unique contribution of forgiveness was 38%. Taken together, based on this semi-partial correlation procedure, forgiveness seemed to make the greatest unique contribution to the three criterion variables of subjective well-being. 4. Discussion 4.1. Implications for developing interventions based on gratitude and forgiveness Findings from past studies have indicated that individuals’ subjective well-being could be predicted by their three orientations to happiness, implying that individuals were more likely to evaluate their well-being positively when they viewed that a good life could be achieved not only through either pleasurable, or meaningful, or engaged activities (i.e., pleasure, meaning, or engagement), but through all three paths (e.g., Park et al., 2004). Past findings have also indicated that subjective well-being was associated with gratitude and forgiveness, implying that cultivating or building these character strengths could lead to increased happiness or subjective well-being (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000; McCullough, 2000). In this connection, research efforts have also been made to demonstrate that gratitude and forgiveness as character strengths did have a unique contribution in predicting

subjective well-being above personality variables such as the Big Five (e.g., McCullough, Bellah, Kilpatrick, & Johnson, 2001; Wood et al., 2008, 2009). These studies are important, considering that cultivating or integrating gratitude and forgiveness has been regarded as promising in the development of effective positive intervention exercises for the enhancement of subjective wellbeing or happiness (see Bono & McCullough, 2006). Consistent with these studies, findings of the present study with Hong Kong teachers extended past findings in the Chinese cultural setting (e.g., Chan, 2009a, 2009b) and added to the body of evidence that the specific character strengths of gratitude and forgiveness together with the three orientations to happiness (pleasure, meaning, and engagement) jointly contributed to the significant prediction of each of three components of subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect). Particularly worthy of note is that gratitude, consistent with the initial conjecture, added to the contribution of orientations of happiness in the prediction of life satisfaction and positive affect. However, somewhat contrary to the initial conjecture that forgiveness would significantly predict negative affect and not other components of subjective well-being, the findings suggested that forgiveness was the strong and significant predictor in the prediction of all three components of subjective wellbeing. Further, forgiveness contributed sizably to the prediction of negative affect, far above the contributions of all other predictors included in the prediction equation, consistent with Confucian teachings that the most important virtue is shu (forgiveness) (see Yu, 2009). This was revealing, as negative affect was generally not well predicted by orientations to happiness and other predictors, and therefore was not specifically targeted for change in the development of positive intervention exercises. Rather, the increase of positive affect is generally emphasized, as in coping (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000) and count-your-blessings exercise (Seligman et al., 2005, 2006). Thus, the present findings, especially those related to the unique contribution of gratitude and forgiveness to subjective wellbeing, provide support for strength-based intervention based on gratitude and forgiveness, and lend support to the integration of both gratitude and forgiveness to the development of more comprehensive positive intervention exercises. These exercises would emphasize equally and appropriately the promotion of positive emotions as well as the reduction of negative emotions such as anger, disappointment, and hostility commonly encountered in adverse interpersonal conflict situations. More specifically, the present findings provide some indirect support for the cultivation and practice of gratitude and forgiveness as a viable intervention option to help teachers cope with the experience of teacher stress and burnout. In teacher education, the development of strength-based programs that aim to cultivate forgiveness and gratitude in teachers in their training could be

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considered preventive in preparing teachers for the stress in teaching. It can be argued that teachers, who build and use their positive character strengths, including and not restricting to gratitude and forgiveness, will become more resilient, more able to cope with stress, and less vulnerable to burnout. In addition, these teachers, who attend well to their personal development through building strengths and resources, will lead more satisfying lives. Furthermore, these teaches should in turn be more able to help students in whole-person development and the pursuit of good and satisfying lives. In the Hong Kong setting, some successful efforts have been made to develop a strength-based intervention using the count-your-blessings format with Naikan-like self-reflection questions for meditation for teachers (see Chan, 2010). It is expected that incorporating forgiveness into self-reflection might enhance the effectiveness of this approach, as forgiveness (not gratitude) has been found to relate significantly to the experience of reduced negative affect in the present study. It is further believed that such a positive approach based on forgiveness and gratitude, already existing in some forms as a part of Confucian teachings and Chinese cultural practice, could be a well-suited treatment option for Chinese teachers in helping them cope with the experience of stress and burnout in relation to working with others. While forgiveness could help minimize the negative consequences of interpersonal harm for teachers’ health, well-being, and social relationships, gratitude could help teachers savor the benefits that are received from others, thereby enhancing the emotional benefits from their positive interactions with others. From the perspective of the narrative approach to therapy, forgiveness and gratitude could provide the counterplots to allow teachers to construct a new life story after ridding themselves of the victim roles in their burnout experience or in the aftermath of the experience (Payne, 2006). Taken together, along the line of the count-yourblessings format of positive intervention, a more complete intervention exercise could encompass not only a counting interpersonal kindness (blessing) component but also a counting interpersonal conflict component. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of such intervention approaches that focus on integrating gratitude and forgiveness warrants careful exploration, and calls for rigorous investigations in future research with teachers in different cultural settings using more sophisticated study designs and multiple studies. 4.2. Limitations and future directions This study certainly had many limitations. One obvious major limitation had to do with the correlational nature of the data. Given that gratitude and forgiveness were found to contribute uniquely to the prediction of subjective well-being, the findings seemed to imply that enhancing gratitude and forgiveness would lead to increased subjective well-being. Strictly speaking, the results only indicated that more grateful and more forgiving people tended to have higher levels of subjective well-being, or people with higher levels of subjective well-being tended to be more grateful and more forgiving. However, the inference of a directional relationship from dispositions or character strengths to evaluations of well-being seemed to be more plausible, as supported by findings in longitudinal studies (e.g., Wood et al., 2011). The present findings were based on a small number of Chinese teachers, which could be another major limitation. These teachers were recruited via enrollment in courses in the university teacher education graduate program, and this convenient sample of teachers could hardly be claimed to be representative of Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. Of course, generalization is made more difficult in this study as there was an overrepresentation of female teachers in the sample. However, this imbalance in gender distribution reflected the reality that there are generally more female teachers in the teaching profession in Hong Kong, and no gender

difference was detected on any of the variables examined in this study. Further, considering the particular value and importance attached to gratitude and forgiveness in the Chinese culture, caution must be exercised in generalizing the present findings to nonChinese settings. Thus, any generalization of the present findings requires future cross-replication with larger and more representative samples of teachers in Chinese and non-Chinese settings. One other limitation of the present study could be the complete reliance on self-report data. Arguably, self reports should be considered the primary source of data for subjective evaluation of wellbeing and character strengths. However, other sources such as peer reports and behavioral ratings, which could provide convergent and therefore more compelling evidence, should be considered in future studies. Finally, this study was limited by its inclusion of only one selected set of variables, namely orientations to happiness, to test the incremental validity of gratitude and forgiveness in the prediction of subjective well-being. Future studies might include other selections of important variables to provide a solid foundation for the use of gratitude and forgiveness as character strengths in the development of effective positive intervention programs for the enhancement of subjective well-being for teachers and the general population. References Al-Mabuk, R. H., Enright, R. D., & Cardis, P. A. (1995). Forgiving education with parentally deprived late adolescents. Journal of Moral Education, 24, 427e444. Arthaud-Day, M. L., Rode, J. C., Mooney, C. H., & Near, J. P. (2005). The subjective well-being construct: a test of its convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity. Social Indicators Research, 74, 445e476. Baumeister, R., & Leary, M. (1995). The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497e529. Bennet, L., Ross, M. W., & Sunderland, R. (1996). The relationship between recognition, rewards, and burnout in AIDS caregiving. AIDS Care, 8, 145e153. Bernstein, D. M., & Simmons, R. G. (1974). The adolescent kidney donor: the right to give. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 1338e1343. Berry, J. W., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (2001). Forgiveness, relationship quality, stress while imagining relationship events, and physical and mental health. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48, 447e455. Bono, G., & McCullough, M. E. (2006). Positive responses to benefit and harm: bringing forgiveness and gratitude into cognitive psychotherapy. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 20, 147e158. Brdar, I., & Kashdan, T. B. (2010). Character strengths and well-being in Croatia: an empirical investigation of structure and correlates. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 151e154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.12.001. Breen, W. E., Kashdan, T. B., Lenser, M. L., & Fincham, F. D. (2010). Gratitude and forgiveness: convergence and divergence on self-report and informant ratings. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 932e937. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.paid.2010.07.033. Chan, D. W. (2000). Vision, task, and hope: The Hong Kong education reform movement in the 21st century. Educational Research Journal, 15, 1e18. Chan, D. W. (2005). Stress, self-efficacy, and burnout among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. In L. V. Barnes (Ed.), Contemporary teaching and teacher issues (pp. 227e245). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science. Chan, D. W. (2009a). Orientations to happiness and subjective well-being among Chinese prospective and in-service teachers in Hong Kong. Educational Psychology, 29, 139e151. Chan, D. W. (2009b). The hierarchy of strengths: their relationships with subjective well-being among Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 867e875. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.01.010. Chan, D. W. (2010). Gratitude, gratitude intervention and subjective well-being among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong. Educational Psychology, 30, 139e153. Chan, D. W. (2011). Burnout and life satisfaction: Does gratitude intervention make a difference among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong? Educational Psychology, 31, 809e823. Clark, H. B., Northrop, J. T., & Barkshire, C. T. (1988). The effect of contingent thankyou notes on case managers’ visiting residential clients. Education and Treatment of Children, 11, 45e51. Coyle, C. T., & Enright, R. D. (1997). Forgiveness intervention with post-abortion men. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 1042e1046. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Collins. Dahlsgaard, K., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Shared virtue: the convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. Review of General Psychology, 9, 203e213.

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