The expression of gratitude by children and young adolescents in different societies is the topic of this special issue. We introduce the concept of gratitude as a virtue, explaining its differences from gratitude viewed as a positive emotion. Although most research on gratitude uses samples from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies (primarily from the United States), we discuss the importance of studying the development of gratitude across different cultural groups. Despite the evidence to suggest that the expression of gratitude is viewed as desirable across multiple societies and historical periods, there is no reason to assume that developmental pathways found in one or other WEIRD society would be found in non-WEIRD societies or that the latter would have similar pathways. Children’s gratitude expression across countries is explored in this special issue using Baumgarten-Tramer’s (1938) paradigm as well as Kağıtçıbaşı’s (2007) framework to address both differences and similarities across cultures.

中文翻译：

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感恩美德的发展：理论基础与跨文化问题

不同社会的儿童和青少年表达感激之情是本期特刊的主题。我们介绍了感恩作为一种美德的概念，解释了它与被视为积极情绪的感恩的区别。尽管大多数关于感恩的研究使用来自西方、受过教育、工业化、富裕和民主 (WEIRD) 社会（主要来自美国）的样本，但我们讨论了研究不同文化群体感恩发展的重要性。尽管有证据表明感恩的表达在多个社会和历史时期被认为是可取的，但没有理由假设在一个或其他 WEIRD 社会中发现的发展途径会在非 WEIRD 社会中发现，或者后者会有类似的途径。