Bulletproof Gratitude: A Proposal to Investigate the Benefits of Incorporating Thankfulness into Inner-city Violence Prevention

Much attention in the area of violence prevention is devoted to the persistent social challenges that are faced by those who are most regularly the perpetrators and/or victims of violence. This is particularly true in the case of inner-city violence. While much of what we know about positive psychology has been discovered on college campuses and through well-being websites, there is good reason to believe that its greatest promise for transforming lives may exist where resources are scarcest. One particularly encouraging area in this respect involves gratitude. The study proposed herein seeks to evaluate the ability of a gratitude exercise to enhance the effectiveness of an inner-city hospital-based violence prevention initiative. The findings from this research could offer important insights into how such programs might promote thankfulness as a way to more effectively address the violence that is commonly a comorbid feature of poverty.