Parental warmth and adolescents’ gratitude: the mediating role of friendship quality and the moderating role of perspective taking

Gratitude has several benefits on the physical and mental health of adolescence. However, only a few studies have explored how to promote the gratitude of adolescents from the perspective of a family. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between parental warmth and adolescents’ gratitude and its underlying mechanism. We recruited 357 adolescents to complete the questionnaire survey on parental warmth, gratitude, perspective-taking, and friendship quality. The following results were obtained. (1) Parental warmth positively predicted adolescents’ gratitude. (2) Friendship quality played a partial mediating role between parental warmth and adolescents’ gratitude. Specifically, parental warmth could not only directly predict adolescents’ gratitude, but also affect adolescents’ gratitude through friendship quality. (3) Perspective-taking negatively moderated the relationship between parental warmth and gratitude and positively moderated the relationship between friendship quality and adolescents’ gratitude. The present study clarified how and when parental warmth affected adolescents’ gratitude and also indicated that the latter could be improved by cultivating friendship quality and perspective-taking ability.