Does being a grateful person increase one’s level of well-being? The mediating role of indebtedness

In this work, we define gratitude, paying attention to interpersonal gratitude and its relationship with dispositional debt. We examined the disposition to feel indebted through analysis of convergence and divergence, exploratory and confirmatory analysis of the most used measurement instrument. The Revised Indebtedness Scale depicted a four factor solution interrelated with a high consistency of content, which allows their labeling and describing. To do this, two samples of university students were selected; one of the sample sizes had 229 Spanish participants and the other 200 participants. Subsequently, a mediation model was tested in which the “Self-sufficiency and discomfort in receiving help” factor mediates the relationship between interpersonal gratitude and the “Positive relations with others” dimension of the Wellbeing scale. The results are discussed in relation to the need for conceptual definition of the constructs in Positive Psychology.