However, according to a new study1 co-authored by Michael Bizzarro, PhD, LCSW, Clinical Director of First Responder Treatment Services at Princeton House, public gratitude was not felt equally across essential worker roles – particularly for corrections officers – which shaped their recovery activities outside of work.
In this two-part study:
- Public gratitude and felt invisibility were measured in corrections officers in northeastern states. Participants felt low levels of public gratitude, with nearly 41% reporting they received no gratitude at all. This impacted felt invisibility, which was linked to negative affect and maladaptive recovery activities such as substance use.
- When manipulated messages of public gratitude were sent to four different essential worker groups, significant differences in felt gratitude and its downstream effects emerged when comparing workers who received public gratitude toward their own occupation vs. those who observed public gratitude toward other occupations.
The study identified public gratitude as a critical factor that shapes the experiences and recovery activities of essential workers, with a notable impact if they felt excluded from recognition and appreciation when others were receiving it.
Cultivating Gratitude from Within
As Dr. Bizzarro notes, elements of gratitude are critical to emotional well-being on a much broader level.
“When first responders feel gratitude and appreciation for the demanding and stressful work they do, they’re more likely to turn away from harmful behaviors and lead a healthier life,” says Dr. Bizzarro. “If they’re not feeling gratitude at work or from the general public, it’s even more important to cultivate it from within.”
In addition to incorporating exercises on gratitude into the first responder treatment curriculum, Dr. Bizzarro helps patients with this process by focusing heavily on one essential premise: changing thinking.
“Even if it doesn’t come naturally at first, taking time to consider what you’re grateful for in life on a regular basis promotes positive thinking,” says Dr. Bizzarro. “And here’s the key: If you change the way you think about a situation, both you and the situation change.”
Often, first responders need to feel in control of a situation to feel safe, according to Dr. Bizzarro. While the gratitude of others cannot be controlled, challenging one’s own patterns of thinking can.
"We don’t realize how much power the mind has to effect change,” says Dr. Bizzarro. “When we help patients understand that changing their thinking makes them an agent of change, they discover that they have the power within them to change a situation for the better.”
1. Kim et al. Are We Essential or Sacrificial? The Effects of Felt Public Gratitude on Essential Worker Recovery Activities During COVID-19. Soc Psychol Personal Sci. 2022.
