REGULAR ARTICLE Cascading Effects of Gratitude: A Sequential Mediation Analysis of Gratitude, Interpersonal Relationships, School Resilience and School Well-being Imelda S. Caleon 1 • Nur Qamarina Binte Ilham 1 • Chin Leng Ong 2 • Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan 1 Ó De La Salle University 2019 Abstract Gratitude, like other positive emotions, has been theorized to help individuals build psychological and social resources and promote resilience and well-being. Some scholars suggest that gratitude may not generate positive outcomes in all cultures. In this study, we examined the relationship of gratitude with school resilience and school well-being, and the potential mediating role of relatedness with key social partners within an Asian cultural context. Participants in the study were 190 secondary students attending one school in Singapore. Results revealed that gratitude was positively associated with school resilience; relatedness with significant others partially mediated this association. The final model also showed a significant sequential pathway from gratitude to relatedness (with significant others), then to school resilience and then to school well-being. Practical implications and limitations of this study are presented. Keywords Gratitude Á Interpersonal relationships Á Resilience Á Well-being Á Adolescents Á Singapore Á Positive education Introduction Gratitude is a life orientation towards noticing and appre- ciating the positive aspects of life (Wood et al. 2010). As an emotion, gratitude emerges from the realization of being a recipient of undeserved benefits or positive outcomes as a result of the actions of another individual (Emmons and McCullough 2003). Gratitude, like other positive emotions, has been theorized to help in building psychological and social resources, which can be utilized by individuals to adapt positively to adversities (Algoe and Stanton 2012)— that is to develop resilience—and to cultivate well-being (see Wood et al. 2010, for a review). Well-being is often categorized into subjective well- being and eudaemonic well-being, with the former focus- ing on satisfaction with life and the predominance of positive affect over negative affect (Diener 1984) and the latter on meaning, self-acceptance and personal growth (Ryff 2014). Gratitude has salutary effects on both types of well-being (Kashdan et al. 2006; McCullough et al. 2002). For the purposes of this study, we focused on subjective well-being, which has been found to be moderately cor- related with eudaemonic well-being (Ryff and Singer 1998), and is strongly influenced by social relationships (Ryan and Deci 2001). In cultivating gratitude, resilience and well-being, the school serves as a fertile context. However, only a handful of studies examined the mechanism linking these potential enablers of school success and future life outcomes in Asian cultural settings. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, no research article has yet to focus on the relationship among gratitude, resilience and well-being, along with interpersonal relationships, in a single study. A study of this nature may suggest potentially powerful ele- ments and mechanisms of interventions aiming to improve & Imelda S. Caleon imelda.caleon@nie.edu.sg Nur Qamarina Binte Ilham qamarina.ilham@nie.edu.sg Chin Leng Ong ong_chin_leng_a@moe.edu.sg Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan jen.tan@nie.edu.sg 1 Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore 2 Meridian Secondary School, Singapore, Singapore 123 Asia-Pacific Edu Res https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-019-00440-w