Gratitude moderates the relation between vulnerability and community participation in people with multiple sclerosis

Research Objectives: Several debilitating sociodemographic and clinical variables are associated with participation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS; Gerhard et al., 2020). Yet, people with higher gratitude can appreciate positive life aspects despite facing adversity (Bussing et al., 2014). This study examined whether gratitude might influence the relationship between vulnerability and community participation.

Design: This study was cross-sectional.

Setting: Participants were recruited from the National MS Society.

Participants: Participants were 373 individuals with MS.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: A vulnerability index score was created to include sociodemographic factors, including being a racial/ethnic minority, having less than a high school education, being unemployed, not having a health insurance, and not seeing a primary care physician regularly. Gratitude was assessed with a 6-item Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6) (McCullough et al., 2002). Community participation was assessed with the 8-item NEURO-QOL Ability to Participate in Social Roles and Activities Short Form v1.0 (Cella et al., 2012).

Results: Moderation analysis was performed to examine if gratitude served as a moderator between the relation between vulnerability and community participation. The main effect for vulnerability (B=-1.61; p<.01) and gratitude (B=2.27; p<.001) were significant, suggesting that lower scores of vulnerability index and higher levels of gratitude were associated with increased community participation. The interaction term for vulnerability index and gratitude (B=-.86; p<.05) was significant, which suggested that gratitude influenced the effect of vulnerability on community participation. The effect of vulnerability on community participation is stronger for people with higher levels of gratitude (slope=-2.55) compared to those with lower levels of gratitude (slope=-.67).

Conclusions: Gratitude served as a moderator between vulnerability and community participation, suggesting the potential role of gratitude in enhancing participation outcomes in people with MS.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts of interest.