The Relationship Between Gratitude and Mental Health Among Policy and Public Administration Students: The Mediating Role of Hope

Given the rising prevalence of psychological distress among university populations worldwide, international health authorities have called for urgent action to pinpoint psychological assets that can safeguard student well-being. Grounded in positive psychology, this study examined the relationship between gratitude and mental health. It investigated the mediating role of hope among undergraduate students of the Faculty of Policy and Public Administration at Kabul University. A cross-sectional, correlational design was employed with a stratified random sample of 196 students (2025 academic year). A battery of validated self-report instruments was administered to all participants, comprising the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6), the Adult Hope Scale (AHS), the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS), and the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations and mediation analysis (PROCESS Model 4, 5,000 bootstrap samples). Results indicated that gratitude was positively associated with hope (r = .329, p < .01) and positive mental health (r = .299, p < .01), and negatively associated with negative mental health (r = −.332, p < .01). Hope was positively related to positive mental health (r = .579, p < .01) and negatively related to negative mental health (r = −.466, p < .01). Mediation analyses revealed that hope partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and both positive (indirect effect = 0.224, 95% CI [0.129, 0.330]) and negative mental health (indirect effect = −0.118, 95% CI [−0.182, −0.063]). These findings suggest that gratitude enhances students’ mental health directly and indirectly through fostering hope, underscoring the value of gratitude- and hope-based interventions in higher education settings. University counseling centers can leverage these low-cost interventions, such as gratitude journaling and hope-enhancing workshops, to improve student mental health, particularly in socioeconomically challenging contexts.