(PS10-C73) Hope, Gratitude, Psychological Distress and Well-being in Trauma-exposed Hispanic/latino Students

Gratitude and hope are well-established buffers against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, anxiety as well as promoting well-being. However, scarce literature exists which investigates these relationships in a Hispanic/Latino sample. The aim of the current study was to investigate gratitude’s and hope’s relationship to PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and psychological well-being, subjective well-being, and social well-being in Hispanic/Latino students who experienced trauma. We hypothesized that gratitude and hope would both predict higher levels of well-being and lower levels of PTSD/anxiety, but that hope would be a stronger predictor of PTSD than gratitude.

The sample was composed of 732 students who were mostly female (80.7%), young adults, (M_age = 21.8, SD = 4.3), who endorsed experiencing some type of traumatic event via the Life Events Checklist. Students completed an online survey in exchange for course credit. Structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the unique effects of gratitude and hope on PTSD symptoms, anxiety, psychological well-being, subjective well-being, and social well-being. The model fit was good (χ² (df = 384) = 1469.01, p < .001, RMSEA = .06, TLI = .93, CFI = .94, SRMR = .04). Gratitude and hope were strongly positively correlated (.54, p < .001). Gratitude had a stronger inverse relationship with PTSD symptoms (β = -.43, 95% CI [-.50, -.35]) and anxiety (β = -.28, 95% CI [-.36, -.20]) compared to hope (β = .06, 95% CI [-.01, .14]) (β = -.06, 95% CI [-.14, .02]), respectively. Gratitude also had a stronger relationship than hope with psychological and subjective well-being, but not with social well-being. Together, gratitude and hope explained 15% of the variance in PTSD symptoms, 10% of the variance in anxiety, 43% of the variance in psychological well-being, 37% of the variance in subjective well-being, and 19% of the variance in social well-being.
                  The current study found that gratitude was a stronger predictor of psychological distress and all the domains of well-being except for social well-being. However, hope was still a unique predictor of psychological distress and the domains of well-being in the hypothesized directions. These results are in line with previous studies which have supported gratitude’s protective effects in Hispanic/Latinos. The findings of this study may lend support for the development of hope and gratitude interventions in a Hispanic/Latino population for the prevention of PTSD symptoms and anxiety via engendering higher levels of resilience.