Gratitude resentment and appreciation scale (GRAT-16): analyzing psychometrics properties in the Indian context

Abstract

GRAT-16 is one of the most commonly used scales that measure gratitude. This scale was designed and majorly used in the western context. The present paper examined the factorial solution, reliability, and validity of the scale in Indian settings. For psychometric analysis of GRAT-16, two studies were conducted. The first study examined the factorial validity of the three-dimensional scale of gratitude (GRAT-16) in the Indian context. The first study was based on a sample of 530 students that consisted of 51.32% male and 48.68% female respondents. These students were enrolled in commerce (68.11%), science (20.57%), and humanities (11.32%) courses and have a mean age of 21.19\xa0years. Study 1 had two sub-samples. The first subsample (n\u2009=\u2009260) was used for exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation. The factorial solution reported three factors that explain a 54% variance. The second subsample (n\u2009=\u2009270) was used for confirmatory factor analysis to substantiate a three-factor scale. Here, one statement was deleted for low regression weight. It reduced GRAT-16 to GRAT-15 for Indian respondents with appreciable goodness of fit indices. The second study examined the reliability and validity of the Indian GRAT-15. Study 2 was based on a sample of 519 students, with a mean age of 21.65\xa0years. This sample had 288 (53.56%) male participants and 241 (53.56%) female respondents. Also, 63.2%, 26.37%, and 10.31% of the participants belonged to commerce, science, and humanities streams. This second study concluded good internal consistency reliability with acceptable values of Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability. The appropriate values of Average Variance Explained (AVE) confirmed convergent and discriminant validity of Indian GRAT-15. The criterion validity of the Indian GRAT-15 was also assessed. A significant positive correlation with the Satisfaction with Life Scale and a negative association with Kessler Psychological Distress Scale concluded that GRAT-15 might be a valuable tool to measure gratitude for the Indian respondents.