The Christian Gratitude Scale: An Emic Approach to Measuring Thankfulness in Every Season of Life

In the present study, we aimed to develop and empirically investigate a short, emic self-report measure to assess gratitude to God (GTG) among Christian populations, operationalized from within the Christian tradition. Employing two subsamples from an online sample of Christian adults (N = 584), we performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to establish factorial validity, then conducted analyses to establish internal consistency reliability and convergent and incremental validity. Results revealed the final 6-item Christian Gratitude Scale (CGS) demonstrated factorial validity, had adequate internal consistency reliability, and was strongly correlated (positive) with general gratitude and mental well-being, weakly correlated (negative) with anxious God attachment, and strongly correlated (negative) with avoidant God attachment. The emic CGS also predicted mental well-being after controlling for the effects of an etic general gratitude scale. To conclude, we discussed the use of the emic scale in future research and intervention contexts, along with study limitations.