The Predictive Value of Virtue: Many Virtues Predict Lower Depression and Anxiety Symptom Scores Among College Students…But Gratitude Dominates

Abstract

Depression and anxiety symptoms have risen in the last decade, especially among college students. Virtues are potentially strong predictive factors of mental health symptoms, but a minimal amount of research has explored which virtues are the strongest predictors. We examined the relative predictive strength of gratitude, forgiveness, patience, intellectual humility, and self-control using dominance analyses. Results suggested that gratitude had the strongest predictive value for lower anxiety and depressive symptom scores compared to forgiveness, intellectual humility, patience, and self-control. An implication of these findings is that when considering intervention work with young emerging adults, researchers may do well to start with gratitude, then promote other virtues such as forgiveness and self-control.

Acknowledgements

This project was made possible by generous support from Baylor University Chaplain’s Office, Institute for Faith and Learning, and the Vice President for Student Life. Analysis pre-registration and data are available at https://osf.io/6x28q.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2024.2326228

Notes

¹ Analysis pre-registration and data are available at https://osf.io/6x28q.

² The full sample of first-year participants included 3,369 (62.9% female) students. The full sample was comprised of participants who reported their ethnicity as Alaskan Native or American Indian (0.5%), Asian (10.4%), Black (4.9%), Hispanic (16.4%), Multiracial (4.6%), Pacific Islander (0.2%), White (61.5%), or did not specify (1.5%) and their socioeconomic status as lower class (1.4%), working class (8.8%), middle class (66.5%), upper class (19.9%), or did not specify (3.4%).

Additional information

Funding

This project was made possible by generous support from Baylor University Chaplain’s Office, Institute for Faith and Learning, and the Vice President for Student Life.

Notes on contributors

Tyler S. Greenway

a

Tyler S. Greenway ([email protected]) is associate professor of psychology at Calvin University.

Mason S. Ming

b

Mason S. Ming ([email protected]) is a former graduate research assistant at Baylor University, where he contributed to this paper. He is currently employed at Qualtrics as a customer experience analyst.

Juliette L. Ratchford

c

Juliette L. Ratchford ([email protected]) is a postdoctoral fellow at Wake Forest University.

Perry L. Glanzer

d

Perry L. Glanzer ([email protected]) is professor of educational foundations at Baylor University and a resident scholar with the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.

Kevin D. Dougherty

e

Kevin D. Dougherty ([email protected]) is professor of sociology and graduate program director at Baylor University.

Sarah A. Schnitker

f

Sarah A. Schnitker ([email protected]) is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University and director of the BRIGHTS (Baylor Research in Growth and Human Thriving Science) Center.