• Since 2011, the Cardus Education Survey (CES) examines a range of outcomes for a nationally representative sample of adults aged 24 to 39 who attended traditional public schools, Protestant schools, Catholic schools, nonreligious independent schools, or were homeschooled. To isolate the school-sector effect, the CES controls for graduates’ background demographics.
• The 2023 CES iteration reveals that US graduates of independent religious schools and homeschooling report higher levels of gratitude than do their public school counterparts, though this difference is reduced after controlling for respondents’ background characteristics.
• Regardless of school sector, graduates who did not grow up in material poverty, who are female, or who grew up in a religious home were more likely to report higher levels of gratitude.
• A significant body of research has suggested that gratitude is linked with other positive outcomes, such as greater life satisfaction, stronger relationships, increased proclivity toward prosocial behaviors, and better mental health. The CES data support these wider findings, with graduates who report higher levels of thankfulness also reporting more positive outcomes in these areas.
• The CES findings reveal that the habits of heart and mind formed during the K–12 years can extend into adulthood, shaping how individuals engage in civic life and respond to the needs of others. These findings underscore gratitude as a lasting virtue that can be meaningfully cultivated through the formal schooling years.

This research was jointly funded by the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, the Baylor Center for School Leadership, Baylor University, and Cardus.

Ancient philosophers recognized gratitude as a foundational virtue for both personal morality and social harmony. Aristotle emphasized the importance of reciprocity and justice in relationships, suggesting that gratitude is essential to sustaining friendship and ethical community life. 1 1 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. W.D. Ross (Clarendon, 1908), bk. 4, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054. The Roman statesman Cicero went so far as to call gratitude the “parent of all other virtues,” highlighting its central role in cultivating civic responsibility and moral character. 2 2 M.T. Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, trans. C.D. Yonge (George Bell & Sons, 1891), chap. 33, sec. 80, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0020%3Atext%3DPlanc.%3Achapter%3D33%3Asection%3D80. For these thinkers, gratitude was not merely a private emotion, but also a social and ethical obligation that undergirds trust, mutuality, and the common good.

While the field of philosophy continues to inform contemporary discussion of gratitude’s role in education and society, a growing body of research on the science of gratitude has emerged from the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Studies have linked higher levels of gratitude with better health outcomes, increased happiness, greater satisfaction with life and work, lower levels of materialism, and lower levels of burnout. 3 3 S. Allen, The Science of Gratitude (Greater Good Science Center, 2017), https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Gratitude-FINAL.pdf. Gratitude has also been correlated with benefits for students in school settings, including higher satisfaction and engagement levels, better social integration, and increased kindness and helpfulness. 4 4 G. Bono, J.J. Froh, and R. Forrett, “Gratitude in School: Benefits to Students and Schools,” in Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools, 2nd ed., ed. M.J. Furlong, R. Gilman, and E.S. Huebner (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2014), 67–81.

Beyond these personal benefits, gratitude can also provide a foundation for cultivating a spirit of generosity and service—a disposition that prompts people to act for the good of others and, in doing so, strengthen the fabric of civic life. Research suggests that gratitude is correlated with prosocial outcomes such as generosity, close social relationships, and willingness to help others. 5 5 Allen, Science of Gratitude. In a time when many are grappling with social fragmentation and isolation, fostering gratitude as a pathway to connectedness and service may be an untapped resource. Further, serving others may itself be part of a virtuous cycle; in addition to benefiting others, service activities have been shown to provide a boost to volunteers’ social, physical, and mental health and well-being. 6 6 B. Nichol, R. Wilson, A. Rodrigues, et al., “Exploring the Effects of Volunteering on the Social, Mental, and Physical Health and Well-Being of Volunteers: An Umbrella Review,” Voluntas 35 (2024): 97–128, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-023-00573-z.

To explore the relationship between gratitude and life outcomes, including volunteering, this report examines findings from the 2023 administration of the Cardus Education Survey (CES). Conducted in the United States in 2011, 2014, 2018, and in 2023, the CES examines a range of outcomes for a nationally representative sample of adults aged 24 to 39 who attended traditional public schools, Protestant schools, Catholic schools, nonreligious independent schools, or were homeschooled. It examines respondents’ academic, spiritual, cultural, civic, and relational outcomes, and their life patterns, views, and choices. The 2023 iteration also included questions about mental health and personal values. The CES controls for a range of respondents’ demographic characteristics in order to estimate the specific effect of school type on graduate outcomes.

The sample size for this iteration of the CES was 2,350 US-based respondents. Respondents indicated the sector in which they attended each year of their primary and secondary schooling. For each year, respondents were able to indicate whether they attended a traditional public school, a charter school, a Catholic school, a Protestant school, another type of religious independent school, a nonreligious independent school, or another type of school. Respondents were also able to indicate whether they were homeschooled for any of their primary and secondary schooling years.

This report discusses the 2023 CES data on respondents’ levels of gratitude, outcomes relating to gratitude, and volunteering. Data are reported by school sector: Respondents who spent the majority of their high school years in traditional public school are compared to respondents who spent the majority of their high school years in Catholic school, Protestant school, nonreligious independent school, or homeschool.

Each figure shows two sets of data. First, raw scores reflect outcomes across the school sectors without adjusting for demographic characteristics. Next, sector-effect scores isolate the effect that each school sector had on its graduates, by controlling for other variables that potentially affect outcomes. These sector-effect results are obtained by using linear regression techniques to account for the following demographic differences: respondent’s age, sex, race, whether they live in a metropolitan area, region of the US in which they currently live, and whether they grew up in poverty, grew up with both biological parents, were raised in a nonreligious household, and had a college-educated mother. These regression models serve to adjust raw scores for the influence that the home and other formative life experiences potentially have on respondents, so that any observed differences among respondents across the school sectors are more reflective of the school’s contribution to those outcomes. This set of results assumes that influences outside of school sector have been adequately accounted for in the demographic variables included in the models. While this cannot be guaranteed, the CES follows industry standards in accounting for these variables as much as is methodologically possible. 7 7 For a thorough explanation of CES methodology, see L.E. Swaner, A. Cheng, and J. Eckert, “School-Sector Influence on Graduate Outcomes and Flourishing: Findings from the 2023 Cardus Education Survey,” Cardus, 2024, https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/school-sector-influence-on-graduate-outcomes-and-flourishing/.

All outcomes are measured from Likert-type items and presented in one of two ways to maximize clarity in the communication of results. In one case, an individual’s responses to multiple Likert-type items are averaged, to create a single score for the outcome being measured. Average scores for all individuals from a specific school sector are then reported. This approach enables the creation, for example, of a “close social relationships” score or a “depression and anxiety” score, and reporting of the results. In the other case, where outcomes are based on a single Likert-type item, respondents are divided into one of two groups according to the answer they selected. The percentage of respondents in each group is then reported. For example, some items ask respondents to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with a statement. For those items, respondents are separated by those who strongly agreed with the statement and those who selected a different answer (i.e., moderately agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, moderately disagree, or strongly disagree). The percentage of respondents from each sector who strongly agreed with a statement is then reported.

In all cases, the average outcome for traditional public school graduates is used as the baseline (set at zero), and all other sector outcomes are reported in relation to it. This approach, which is consistent with that of our previous reporting, reflects the reality that traditional public schools comprise the largest educational sector and are the default schooling option in the US, as these schools are fully government funded and operated and, in most cases, students are automatically assigned to a specific school based on their place of residence.

The findings are presented as follows:

• Sense of gratitude, as measured by feelings of thankfulness in life;
• Outcomes linked with gratitude in the scholarly literature, such as life satisfaction, close social relationships, prosocial/helping orientation, generosity, mental well-being, and charitable giving; and
• Volunteer activity.

Graduates’ sense of gratitude was measured through a single item that asked respondents to rate their agreement with the statement “I have so much in life to be thankful for.” This item was drawn from the Gratitude Questionnaire, a validated instrument. 8 8 M.E. McCullough, R.A. Emmons, and J. Tsang, “The Grateful Disposition: A Conceptual and Empirical Topography,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (2002): 112–127. The possible response options for this item were “strongly disagree,” “moderately disagree,” “slightly disagree,” “slightly agree,” “moderately agree,” and “strongly agree.”

Findings indicate that very few respondents disagreed with the statement. Only 8 percent of respondents selected “strongly disagree,” “moderately disagree,” or “slightly disagree.” But among the 92 percent of respondents who agreed with the statement at some level, what sets apart those who selected the highest response option, “strongly agree,” from those who selected “moderately agree” or “slightly agree”? Is school sector a factor in shaping graduates toward becoming the most grateful adults?

About 55 percent of graduates from traditional public schools said they “strongly agree” with the statement “I have so much in life to be thankful for.” Meanwhile, 68, 63, and 69 percent of graduates from Protestant, Catholic, and nonreligious independent schools, respectively, selected the “strongly agree” option. All these differences are statistically significant in addition to being large in absolute terms. In other words, independent school graduates are more likely to exhibit the highest level of gratitude than are their traditional public school counterparts. Graduates of homeschool settings, in contrast, are similar to graduates of traditional public schools in this regard: 58 percent of homeschool graduates said they “strongly agree.”

These differences relative to the traditional public school sector shrink after controlling for respondent demographic characteristics and fall short of statistical significance, though they are still positive, with some differences remaining large in absolute terms. The 13 percentage-point difference for Protestant school graduates decreases to 5 percentage points, and the Catholic-school difference decreases to 2 percentage points. The 14 percentage-point difference for nonreligious independent school graduates decreases to 11 percentage points. As for homeschool graduates, accounting for demographic characteristics does not have a material effect.

Three demographic characteristics seem to correlate most strongly with likelihood that a respondent reports the highest level of gratefulness. First, respondents who did not grow up in material poverty are 8 percentage points more likely than respondents who grew up in material poverty to “strongly agree” that they have “so much in life to be thankful for.” Second, women appear to be more grateful than men, with men being 5 percentage points less likely to select “strongly agree.” Finally, respondents who grew up in a religious home are much more likely than respondents who did not grow up in a religious home to “strongly agree.” Remarkably, the difference is 14 percentage points.

In summary, adults who graduated from school sectors other than traditional public schools are much more likely to report the highest level of gratitude. But after controlling for background characteristics, a noticeable but statistically insignificant difference remains. Thus we are not able to conclude that there is a sector-level effect on graduates’ levels of gratitude. What is clearer is that respondents who did not grow up in material poverty, who are female, or who grew up in religious homes are more likely to exhibit higher levels of gratitude.

The scholarly literature points to benefits that are linked with higher levels of gratitude, such as better health outcomes, increased happiness, and greater satisfaction with life and work, along with prosocial outcomes such as increased generosity, stronger close social relationships, and willingness to help others. 9 9 Allen, Science of Gratitude. The CES measures several graduate outcomes related to these benefits, such as respondents’ levels of life satisfaction, close social relationships, prosocial/helping orientation, generosity, and mental health and well-being. For each of these, analysis of the CES data confirms a benefit for those graduates who reported high levels of gratitude, measured as a “strongly agreed” response to the statement “I have so much in life to be thankful for.”

The 2023 CES administration included questions drawn from the Satisfaction with Life Scale, a validated instrument. 10 10 E. Diener et al., “The Satisfaction with Life Scale,” Journal of Personality Assessment 49 (2010): 71–75, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with each of the following statements: (1) “In most ways, my life is close to my ideal,” (2) “The conditions of my life are excellent,” (3) “I am satisfied with my life,” (4) “So far, I have gotten the important things I want in life,” and (5) “If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.” Possible response options were “strongly disagree,” “moderately disagree,” “slightly disagree,” “slightly agree,” “moderately agree,” and “strongly agree.” Responses for these five items were then averaged to generate a composite score for each respondent.

Gratitude seems to correlate with greater levels of life satisfaction, even after accounting for demographic characteristics and school sector. The average Satisfaction with Life score for respondents who did not strongly agree that they “had so much in life to be thankful for” is 3.32 scale points. In contrast, after adjusting for differences in demographic characteristics and school sector, the average Satisfaction with Life score for respondents who strongly agreed that they “had so much in life to be thankful for” is higher, at 4.52 scale points.

Next, respondents were asked questions from the Close Social Relationships domain of the Flourishing Measure, a validated instrument developed by the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, 11 11 T.J. VanderWeele, “On the Promotion of Human Flourishing,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 31, no. 114 (2017): 8148–56, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702996114. along with other items designed to measure sense of belonging. The survey asked respondents to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with each of the following statements: (1) “I am content with my friendships and relationships,” (2) “My relationships are as satisfying as I would want them to be,” (3) “I feel lonely,” (4) “I feel a sense of belonging to my local community,” and (5) “If I were in trouble, I have relatives or friends whom I can count on to help me when I need them.” Possible response options were “strongly disagree,” “moderately disagree,” “slightly disagree,” “slightly agree,” “moderately agree,” and “strongly agree.” A composite score was then calculated for each respondent by averaging their responses across the five items. As was found for levels of life satisfaction, gratitude seems to correlate with greater reported levels of close social relationships, even after accounting for demographic characteristics and school sector. The average close social relationships score for respondents who did not strongly agree that they “had so much in life to be thankful for” is 3.59 scale points, versus 4.59 for those who strongly agreed with the statement. This 1.0 scale point difference remains after adjusting for demographic and school sector differences.

The CES included two items relating to graduates’ prosocial orientation and the value they place on being helpful to others. The first asked respondents to indicate how important it is to have a job that gives them an opportunity to be directly helpful to others. The second asked how important community involvement is as a personal value. Respondents who strongly agreed that they “had so much in life to be thankful for” were more likely to respond favorably to both of these items, by 14 and 6 percentage points, respectively.

The CES also sought to gauge graduates’ levels of generosity by asking about their charitable giving, through the question, “Within the last 12 months, have you donated your own money to a non-profit charity or group?” The CES finds a positive 21 percentage point difference on this item for those who indicated higher levels of thankfulness.

The CES also included selected items from two scales that are used to screen for depression and anxiety. 12 12 K. Kroenke et al., “The PHQ-9: Validity of a Brief Depression Severity Measure,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 16, no. 9 (2001): 606–13, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x; R.L. Spitzer et al., “A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder: The GAD-7,” Archives of Internal Medicine 166, no. 10 (2006): 1092–97, https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092. Respondents were asked, “Over the last 7 days, how often have you been bothered by: (1) Having little interest or pleasure in doing things, (2) Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless, (3) Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge, and (4) Not being able to stop or control worrying?” Possible response options for each of these items were “not at all,” “one day,” “two to three days,” “more than half the days,” and “nearly every day.” Responses on these items were then averaged, to generate a composite score for each respondent. 13 13 Importantly, while these items were drawn from the aforementioned two clinical scales, the CES does not use all of the items on these scales, nor does it follow the scoring methods required for clinical use. This means that the CES does not provide a diagnostically accurate picture of clinical depression or anxiety. Instead, data from these questions were used to generate a snapshot of the depression and anxiety levels self-reported by graduates of each sector. These results cannot, and should not, be construed as a clinically accurate measurement of depression and anxiety for an individual respondent, a group of respondents, the overall CES sample, or for the larger population of 24- to 39-year-olds in the US.

Higher levels of gratitude seem to coincide with lower depression and anxiety scores, even after accounting for demographic characteristics and school sector. The average score for respondents who did not strongly agree that they “had so much in life to be thankful for” is 2.38 scale points. In contrast, respondents who strongly agreed with this statement had a lower depression and anxiety score, at 1.80 scale points.

Finally, the CES gauged involvement in volunteer activity. Twenty-eight percent of all 24- to 39-year-olds in the sample reported having done unpaid, volunteer work in the previous twelve months. One third of respondents who strongly agreed with the statement “I have so much in life to be thankful for” reported volunteering within the last twelve months—a 15 percentage point difference over the 18 percent of respondents who did not strongly agree with that statement and reported volunteering within the last twelve months.

A major finding of this research is that graduates who reported higher levels of gratitude also reported higher levels of other good outcomes—higher levels of life satisfaction, close social relationships, prosocial orientation, 14 14 As measured by a higher level of importance placed on having a job that provides the opportunity to be directly helpful to others, as well as on community service as a personal value. charitable giving, and volunteering, along with decreased levels of self-reported anxiety and depression. While graduates of independent schools have on average higher levels of gratitude than their public school counterparts do, this gap narrows after accounting for graduates’ background characteristics. In particular, respondents who did not grow up in poverty, are female, or who grew up in religious homes are more likely to exhibit the higher levels of gratitude.

Setting the question of gratitude aside, the CES data show sector-level differences in many of the other outcomes explored in this report, even after controlling for background demographic characteristics. 15 15 Swaner, Cheng, and Eckert, “School-Sector Influence on Graduate Outcomes and Flourishing.” For example, graduates of Catholic schools are more likely to value jobs that help others than are their public school peers, and graduates of nonreligious independent schools place greater importance on community involvement than do graduates of religious independent schools. Even after accounting for demographic factors, graduates of all independent school sectors reported higher levels of charitable giving, and those from Protestant schools or homeschooling backgrounds are more likely to volunteer, compared to public school graduates. And in terms of mental health and well-being, homeschool graduates reported lower levels of anxiety and depression, compared with all other sector graduates. The findings suggest that while gratitude is linked with better outcomes in other areas, it is certainly not the only factor influencing those outcomes: School sector plays an important, independent role. Additional research is needed to determine the specific attributes of the school sector that are contributing to those outcome differences.

Finally, other research has provided ample evidence of how particular educational interventions can foster gratitude in students. 16 16 C. Hinton, B. Hill, and A. Yemiscigil, Evidence-Based Interventions and Initiatives to Support Student Well-Being in Schools, OECD, 2024, https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/about/projects/edu/hpst/EHF_Evidence-based%20interventions%20and%20initiatives%20to%20support%20student%20well-being%20in%20schools_Hinton%20Hill_Yemiscigil.pdf. This means that gratitude is not just a personal disposition, nor is it permanently fixed by circumstances or life experiences. Rather, schools can intentionally cultivate gratitude as a lasting virtue, whether through curricula, religious formation, or community practice—and, in turn, they may better prepare graduates for lives marked by personal and social flourishing. Indeed, these CES findings confirm that habits of heart and mind developed in the formative years of schooling can carry into adulthood, shaping how persons find meaning, build relationships, respond to others’ needs, and contribute to their communities and the common good.