1 Introduction

Parenting, as defined by the American Psychological Association [5], encompasses various behaviors aimed at caring for and supporting children, facilitating the acquisition of essential skills and qualities, and preparing them for adulthood. While parenting is often regarded as a source of happiness within interpersonal relationships, it can also be a significant source of stress due to the transformative changes it brings. This stress is commonly referred to as parental stress, encompassing the physiological and psychological responses exhibited by parents as they adapt to the responsibilities of parenthood [1, 22, 47]. The demands of being a parent contribute to the emergence of parental stress, and it is intricately linked to the assumption of new roles associated with childcare and the concomitant responsibilities [1, 11, 40].

Families operate within an interconnected and interdependent structure, and the family unit wields a profound influence on a child's behavior and attitudes. Parents, in particular, play a pivotal role in shaping not only their children's conscious but also their unconscious behaviors, with the preschool period being a critical time for character development. During this formative stage, younger children possess a heightened need for parental support, underscoring the crucial nature of the parent–child relationship, particularly during the preschool years. Effectively managing parental stress, promoting overall well-being, and providing adequate care to the child are all indispensable factors contributing to their healthy development [8, 10, 19, 38, 45, 50].

Academic studies show that individuals' psychological well-being is significantly impacted by their proximity to their parents [4, 28]. Moreover, the parent–child relationship exerts a substantial influence on children's well being, including cognitive development, socialization outcomes, gratitude levels [44, 48, 60]. In addition, over the last decade, researchers have increasingly recognized gratitude as a prominent psychological factor that exerts a positive influence on children's behaviors and reactions. The literature shows that gratitude affects children's well-being in all aspects [21, 26, 59]. Children whose parents exemplify gratitude exhibit higher levels of gratitude themselves, and these parents also show more supportive attitudes toward their children [44].

In positive psychology, gratitude is defined as recognizing and expressing appreciation for the positive aspects of life [17]. Gratitude involves acknowledging the good things in life and feeling grateful and happy for them. Recent studies have shown that feeling grateful has a significant impact on one's wellbeing. According to studies [3, 63], persons who express gratitude frequently exhibit high degrees of subjective and psychological well-being. These individuals also exhibit high levels of positive affect, social functioning, hope, and happiness [24, 62], as well as a propensity to recall pleasant events more frequently [61]. Furthermore, it has been noticed that these individuals are shielded from adverse effects including depression, stress, hopelessness, and anxiety [29, 61]. Additionally, these persons have decreased levels of post-traumatic symptoms [64], jealousy and materialistic perspectives [41], and suicidal tendencies [29, 35, 37]. Positive psychology methods are now more frequently used to enhance psychological well-being [7, 12].

Gratitude, a prominent concept in positive psychology, has been the subject of numerous studies aiming to enhance its development. There are three fundamental kinds of gratitude interventions: gratitude lists, grateful contampaltions, and demonstrations of thankfulness to others [64]. Gratitude counting exercises, particularly the use of gratitude journals stand out as prevalent interventions in this area [16, 61]. These practices are more accessible than other positive psychology practices and effectively help individuals to develop and focus on gratitude in their daily lives [6]. These exercises may last from 1 week to 4 weeks. It is significant that in recent years, shorter interventions have been advised [49].

Previous gratitude writing studies have shown positive effects on life satisfaction, happieness, psycholohgical well-being [16, 36, 56], reduction in hopelessness, depression and anxiety levels [12, 15, 32, 46]. These exercises are accessible and easy to implement for everyone. Initially, some participants may express having nothing to be grateful for, but over time, they start noticing things they had previously overlooked. This process, by highlighting the positive aspects alongside the negative, leads to a reevaluation of daily experiences and enhances individuals' well-being [65]. However, a notable gab exists in the literature concerning the study groups in gratitude interventions. Mainly conducted with adolescents, collage students and adults, these studies have limited represeantion for parents [2, 34]. One study using a thankfulness diary intervention with preschool parents has been reported in the literature [2]. Following their thankfulness writing, the parents in this study reported low levels of parenting stress, although this was not a statistically significant result.

The overall well-being of the parents has a big impact on the child's development and the state of the parent–child interaction. Well-being is defined as feeling good, healthy, and happy [18] and is a key concept in positive psychology. Well-being investigates why some individuals are happier than others, how they achieve happiness, and the strategies they employ to maintain their well-being [14]. Mental well-being encompasses two aspects: hedonic (subjective well-being) and eudaimonic (psychological well-being). High degrees of satisfaction and positive feelings are characteristics of subjective well-being. It results from individuals' evaluations of life events and their emotional reactions [13]. On the other hand, eudaimonic well-being is defined as accepting oneself as one is, establishing positive and effective interpersonal relationships, and finding meaning in life by utilizing environmental opportunities [51].

Individuals with mental well-being are aware of their limitations, can establish satisfying relationships with their environment, shape their circumstances within their capabilities, understand their life purpose, and anticipate how to advance in life [57]. Research demonstrates that mental well-being is positively associated with individual, environmental, and social factors such as psychological and physical health, creativity, immune function, interpersonal relationships, and work performance [33, 39]. When research on parents' mental health are evaluated, stress, bad feelings about their children (such as danger or suffering), and financial issues all have a detrimental impact on parents' well-being. Additionally, pleasant feelings toward children, happy events, and rewarding parenting experiences (such children's happiness and success) all contribute to parents' wellbeing [43].

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as another factor affecting parental stress levels and well-being. The pandemic, which began worldwide in 2020, resulted in significant changes in daily life. Schools transitioned to remote learning and gradually reopened later on. Children spent more time at home than ever before, presenting occasional challenges for parents. Due to the pandemic, families had to spend an average of 49.7 h per week caring for their children [54]. Parental stress levels and well-being are thought to be significantly impacted by the pandemic's stress as well as the challenges faced throughout the adjustment phase to schools [23]. One of the most appropriate activities for them currently in terms of simplicity and effectiveness may be the gratitude journaling exercises. The practice of gratitude journaling writing is a simple positive psychology exercise that has been demonstrated to enhance wellbeing and reduce stress. But to our knowledge, there was very limited experimental study on this topic with preschool parents in the global literature [2]. As a result, we believe that the experimental study we conducted will significantly contribute to the advancement of the field. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential benefits of gratitude journaling for preschool parents in terms of reducing stress levels and enhancing well-being. The following hypotheses were tested:

  1. 1.

    There will be a significant reduction in parental stress levels among participants in the experimental group engaging in the gratitude journal writing exercise, reflected in their post-test scores compared to the post-test scores of the control group. Additionaly, the post-test scores of mental well-being are anticipated to be significantly higher in the experimental group than those of the control group.

  2. 2.

    There will be a significant difference, favoring the post-test scores, between the pre-test scores and the post-test scores of mental well-being and parental stress levels among parents in the experimental group engaging in the gratitude journal writing exercise.

  3. 3.

    No significant difference is expected between the post-test scores and the follow-up test scores of mental well-being and parental stress levels among parents in the experimental group engaging in the gratitude journal writing exercise.

2 Method

2.1 Study design

This study employed a 2 × 3 quasi-experimental design [(experimental group / control group) x (pre-test/post-test/follow-up test)] to examine the effects of positive psychology-based gratitude journal writing on the levels of parental stress and well-being among parents of preschool children. The independent variable in the study was the practice of keeping a gratitude journal based on positive psychotherapy for a duration of 14 days, while the levels of parental stress and well-being of preschool parents were the dependent variables.

2.2 Participants

The participants in this study consisted of parents of children aged 4–5 years attending a preschool educational institution in the Kepez district of Antalya, Turkey, where the second author works as a school counselor. The second author invited all parents (150 individuals) to participate in the gratitude journal writing study as part of the research. A total of 41 mothers volunteered to take part in the study. The Parental Stress Scale and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale were administered to the participating parents. Quasi-experimental methodology, which is commonly used in educational settings [9], was applied in this study. Convenience was considered when assigning the 41 volunteers to the experimental and control groups. The participants were divided into a morning group (experimental group, n = 20) and an afternoon group (control group, n = 21). As all participants volunteered and only mothers were involved in the study, all participants were women.

2.3 Data collection tools

2.3.1 Personal information form

The researcher created this form to collect information about the participants' personal characteristics, such as their age, faculty of study, marital status, etc. Our study did not apply statistical analysis to the variables that were gathered via the information form.

2.3.2 The parental stress scale

This scale, created by Özmen and Özmen [47], assesses the level of stress parents encounter when interacting with their kids on a daily basis. The scale consists of 16 items, which were determined through exploratory factor analysis and account for 32.20% of the variance. The scale has a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of.85 and a Spearman-Brown two-half test reliability of.82, both of which showed strong internal consistency reliability [47]. An example item from the scale is: "It is very difficult for me to make my child happy."

2.3.3 Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale

This scale, created by Tennant et al. [57] and translated into Turkish by Keldal [31], assesses a person's level of mental health. The scale consists of 14 items and was found to be one-dimensional in its original form, explaining 51% of the total variance. With a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of, the scale indicated strong internal consistency dependability.92 [31]. An example item from the scale is: "I can cope well with problems."

2.4 Procedure

The researcher held a meeting with the experimental group after establishing the experimental and control groups. The idea of gratitude was discussed at this gathering, and the attendees received gratitude notebooks. The journals had spaces for the writers to describe instances of appreciation they had observed or felt as parents, thankfulness they had observed or felt in their kid, and gratitude they had observed or felt in their own lives. Participants were instructed to keep the gratitude journals for 14 days. The researcher created a WhatsApp group and sent motivational reminders to the participants every evening around 9:30 pm to encourage them to fill out their journals for the day. A motivational message that was delivered to the experimental group might have been, "Optimism is a muscle that becomes stronger with usage. Let's write in our gratitude notebooks as part of today's activity. A face-to-face finalization meeting was held with the experimental group at the conclusion of the 14-day period. Participants in this gathering discussed their thoughts and experiences with the procedure. Additionally, the participants brought their written journals and shared them. It is important to note that apart from the first and last meetings, there were no additional interventions or sessions during the 14-day period. At the conclusion of the meeting, the post-tests were finished by the experimental group. The post-test was finished by the control group that same week. The experimental group underwent follow-up measurements two weeks after the post-test measurement (Table 1).

Table 1 Steps of the experimental process
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2.5 Ethical approval

The experimental protocol was designed in accordance with the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All participants were debriefed at the end of the experiment. Ethics committee approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of Akdeniz University.

2.6 Data analysis

Software called SPSS 22.0 was used to analyze the data that were gathered for this investigation. 41 people made up the participant group in total. According to Karasar [30], with small samples, the distribution characteristics may diverge from the normal distribution and show a skewness to the right or left. As a result, non-parametric techniques were used to analyze the data rather than relying on the assumption of normal distribution. Following the creation of the groups, a Mann–Whitney U test was carried out to look for differences between the groups that were statistically significant in terms of parental stress and mental wellbeing pre-test ratings. The analysis showed no discernible differences between the experimental and control groups' pre-test ratings for parental stress (U = 194.500, z = −0.405, p = 0.685) and mental wellbeing (U = 202.000, z = −0.209, p = 0.834). To compare the repeated measurements within each group, The Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test was utilized and the Mann–Whitney U test were used to compare the repeated measurements of the experimental and control groups. The r value (r = z/√n), which is suggested for nonparametric tests, was calculated to determine the effect magnitude. According to Tomczak and Tomczak [58], values 0.30, 0.30–0.50, and > 50 denote small, medium, and high effect sizes, respectively.

3 Results

3.1 Findings related to the first hypothesis

The results of the study, which focus on how gratitude notebooks based upon positive psychology have influenced stress and mental health levels in early childhood parents, are presented here. Table 2 displays the outcomes of a Mann–Whitney U test comparing control and experimental groups and analyzing parental stress and mental health.

Table 2 Results of the Mann–Whitney U test used to compare the experimental and control groups’ post-test findings for parental stress and mental well-being
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Table 2 demonstrates that compared to the control group, the experimental group had considerably lower posttest scores for parental stress with a large moderate size (U = 91.00, Z = 3.111, p = 0.002, r = 0.485). Additionally, the experimental group's post-test scores for mental well-being are much higher than those of the control group, with a moderate effect size (U = 117.000, Z = −2.436, p = 0.015, r = 0.375).

3.2 Findings related to the second hypothesis

Table 3 displays the findings from the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test, which compares the pre-test and post-test scores for parental stress within the experimental and control groups separately.

Table 3 Results of the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test for the comparison of parental stress scores between the experimental and control groups on the pre-test and post-test
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Upon examining Table 3, it is evident that the pre-test scores for parental stress in the experimental group are significantly higher than their corresponding post-test scores with a large effect size (Z = −3.386, p = 0.001, r = 0.536). Similarly, the post-test scores for parental stress in the control group are significantly higher than their pre-test scores with amoderate effect size (Z = −2.226, p = 0.026, r = 0.351). These results indicate that the gratitude journaling intervention not only acts as a preventive factor but also offers protection against parental stress.

Table 4 displays the outcomes of the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test, which compares the pre-test and post-test scores within both the experimental and control groups. It is clear from looking at Table 4 that the experimental group's post-test well-being scores are greater than their matching pre-test values with a large effect size (Z = −3.484, p = 0.000, r = 0.553). However, there was no discernible difference between the control group's pre-test and post-test results.

Table 4 Results of the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test for the comparison of the experimental group’s pre-test and post-test scores on measures of mental well-being
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3.3 Findings related to the third hypothesis

The experimental group participants' post-test and follow-up findings for parental stress and well-being were compared using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, as seen Table 5.

Table 5 Results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for the comparison of the experimental group’s ratings on the post-test mental well-being, parental stress, and follow-up test
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4 Discussion

According to the study's findings, parents who participated in gratitude journaling demonstrated significantly lower levels of parental stress and greater emotional well-being than parents in the control group. The intervention acts as a stress-reduction measure for parents as well as a preventive strategy. This pilot study fills a knowledge gap considering the limited research on gratitude writing with preschool parents. As previously stated, there has only been one research study involving preschool parents conducted to this point. In Ahmed's [2] study, parents of children between the ages of 2 and 5 were subjected to a gratitude journaling intervention to see how it affected their stress levels, general well-being, depressive symptoms, and sense of self-compassion. The findings showed that only negative affect decreased; there were no significant impacts on parental stress. This contradicts what we found in our investigation. Only after 14 days did we observe positive effects. The gratitude writing interventions in our study covered writing down feelings of gratitude for three distinct things: their child, themselves as parents, and life in general. This may have had the desired effect of amplifying the journaling's impact.

Additionally, comparable findings have been found when looking at limited research with parents of children in different age groups. Kim-Godwin [34] conducted a 6-week gratitude journaling study with 37 parents of adolescents or adult children who had emotional and behavioral problems. The results revealed a decrease in parental stress, somatic symptoms, anxiety, and despair, as well as an increase in gratitude. The children's average age was 8.39 years old when Nelson-Coffey and Coffey [42] conducted a gratitude letter-writing research with parents who had at least one child under the age of 18. According to the study's findings, parents with high levels of attachment insecurity who practiced expressing thankfulness showed observable increases in positive emotions, general wellbeing, and improvements in their relationships with their kids. These studies conducted with parents of children of different age groups support our study’s findings.

Additionally, studies with different groups have shown results that are consistent with our research. In studies with university students, researchers Emmons and McCullough [16], Seligman et al. [53], and Sheldon and Lyubomirsky [55] discovered that gratitude writing increased happiness levels, improved sleep quality, and decreased melancholy. In a study with teenagers, Froh et al. [20] discovered that expressing gratitude through letter writing improved good affect. According to studies by Froh et al. [21] and Kerr et al. [32], gratitude interventions have improved the quality of life and reduced anxiety levels among participants. Similar beneficial effects of gratitude writing have been seen in studies conducted in Türkiye. The practice of gratitude journaling has been shown to increase psychological well-being in adults [25], subjective well-being in adolescents [52], positive affect, life satisfaction, and adjustment in university students [27], and reduce depression and anxiety in adults [46]. These studies, together with the findings of our study, suggest that gratitude is beneficial for a wide range of populations. The results of our study, as we expected, fill up any gaps on the effectiveness of gratitude exercises for parents of young children.

In addition, the comments participants provided during the study's conclusion meeting confirm the value of the gratitude journaling intervention. The participants expressed feelings of accomplisment and satisfaction in their daily lives, reported enhanced relationships with their children, and noted increased awareness of their children’s positive features. These experiences support the value of interventions and are consistent with positive impacts on parent versus child interactions and personal well being that have been observed.

5 Limitaitons and implications

By being the very first study demonstrating the effectiveness of gratitude journaling interventions on reducing parental stress and enhancing well-being, this pilot study significantly makes a substantial contribution to the literature. There are several limitations to take into account, though, and they offer important insights for further research. Every participant in our study was woman. Future studies should investigate incentive strategies to involve fathers and include parents from various age groups. Additionally, the study’s subjects were chosen from a particular school, indicating a uniform socioeconomic background. To ensure wider generalizability, research should be conducted in a variety of socioeconomic circumstances, involving larger sample sizes and implementing randomized control procedures. The findings also emphasize the necessity of continuing investigations into the long-term impacts of gratitude interventions on the wellbeing and stress of parents.

In conlusion, the findings of the study reveal that, when compared to the control group, the gratitude journaling intervention significantly lowers parental stress and improves well-being of the preschool parents. The intervention fosters a positive and comprehensive viewpoint by encouraging parents to consider and record the things they are grateful for in their everyday lives and interactions with their children. This study stresses the benefits that short positive psychological interventions can have for families. Based on these findings, similar interventions can be integrated to school-based initiatives, including programs of school counseling and guidance services.