GQ-6 Gratitude Score

About the GQ-6 (Gratitude Questionnaire-6)

McCullough, Emmons & Tsang built the Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6) in 2002 to gauge how much someone tends to feel gratitude in daily life. It has become one of the go-to instruments in positive psychology and now exists in more than 20 languages.

There are 6 items, each answered on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). You get the total with sum(items), but items 3 and 6 are reverse-scored first: reversed = 8 - raw. Scores fall between 6 and 42, and the higher the number, the stronger the gratitude trait.

In US adult samples the average lands somewhere around 35-38 points. Anything above 39 reads as high, while below 32 is on the low side. The Brazilian validation (Gouveia, Ribeiro, Aquino & Vasconcelos, 2009) backed up the one-factor structure and reported good internal consistency (α ≈ 0.83).

Applications

Researchers reach for the GQ-6 when studying subjective well-being, life satisfaction, prosocial behavior, sleep quality or resilience. Clinically, it shows up in gratitude-journaling interventions and positive psychotherapy protocols. People who score higher on gratitude tend to report fewer depressive symptoms, fall asleep more easily and feel more social support around them.

FAQ

Can I use it for self-diagnosis? No. The GQ-6 captures a trait, not a disorder, so this calculator is no substitute for a clinical or psychological evaluation by a qualified professional.

Which items are reverse-scored? Item 3 ("When I look at the world, I don't see much to be grateful for") and item 6 ("Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone") get reversed before you add everything up.

Is there a Brazilian validation? Yes. Gouveia et al. (2009) ran a confirmatory factor analysis on Brazilian samples and found the psychometric properties to be adequate.