Predictors and the mediating role of forgiveness in the relationship between religious struggle and mental health (original) (raw)
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Forgiveness and mental health : a comparison across monotheistic religions
2000
This study examined the relationship between forgiveness and mental health. Additionally, the study compared two monotheistic religions (i.e. Judaism, Christianity) with respect to the practice and conceptualization of forgiveness. Participants from the Jewish and Christian religions were recruited from several Midwestern churches and synagogues. Participants answered self-report questionnaires concerning religiousness, forgiveness, and mental health (e.g. anger, hope, depression, and spiritual well-being). Consistent with hypotheses, Forgiveness (AN) and Forgiveness (PP) were negatively correlated with state anger and positively correlated with existential well-being after controlling for the effects o f demographics and religiousness. Additionally, Forgiveness (AN) was negatively correlated with depression, and positively correlated with religious well-being. Contrary to hypotheses, the tendency to forgive across situations was not significantly correlated with any of the mental h...
Spiritual pathology and religious coping as predictors of forgiveness
Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2012
Spiritual pathology, religious coping, and dispositional forgiveness were investigated in two studies with graduate students at a Christian university-based seminary. Spiritual pathology was operationalised using measures of spiritual instability and spiritual grandiosity. Study 1 (N ¼ 194) examined patterns of correlation between positive and negative religious coping items, spiritual pathology, and dispositional forgiveness. Spiritual instability correlated with numerous positive and negative religious coping items while spiritual grandiosity did not. Dispositional forgiveness correlated with more positive than negative religious coping items. Study 2 (N ¼ 214) tested regression models with these variables. Spiritual grandiosity showed a significant quadratic (concave down) effect in predicting dispositional forgiveness while the linear effect was not significant. A hierarchical regression model showed positive religious coping, spiritual instability, and the quadratic effect for spiritual grandiosity each predicted unique variance in dispositional forgiveness after controlling for spiritual impression management. Negative religious coping was not related to dispositional forgiveness when included with these variables.
The quest for existential meaning constitutes a universal phenomenon traditionally manifested in official religions (religiosity) or personal modes of transcendence (spirituality). Religiosity and spirituality have been found to be associated with a variety of mental health and illness parameters. Material and method: 202 healthy students of the faculty of Theology of the University of Athens were interviewed using the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality, which assesses, among others, the dimension of "forgiveness". The scale is "inverted", i.e. high scores in the dimensions of religiosity correspond to a low level of religiosity. Symptom Checklist-90-R was used for the assessment of specific factors of present psychopathology. Pearson correlations coefficients were used to explore the association of two continuous variables. The association between forgiveness dimension and SCL-90 factors scores was modeled using multiple linear regression analyses. Results: There was significant positive correlation between the score of the dimension of "forgiveness" and interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, as well as the SCL-90 global score. Moreover, in the multiple linear regression analysis, "forgiveness" was independently associated with depression, hostility, paranoid ideation, psychoticism and the SCL-90 global score indicating that lower levels of forgiveness are associated with worse psychopathology related to the aforementioned factors. Conclusion: Lower level of forgiveness relates to higher scores in depression, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, hostility, paranoid ideation, psychoticism and the SCL-90 global score, suggesting more symptoms/complaints. In accordance to the existing literature, forgiveness appears to be an essential psychological distress buffer.
Relationship Between Psychological Resilience, Forgiveness and God Perception
Relationship Between Psychological Resilience, Forgiveness and God Perception, 2023
This study investigated the relationship between psychological resilience, forgiveness, and the perception of God and their correlation. The research was conducted using the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. The sample of the study consisted of adult individuals. A total of 549 people—316 women and 233 men—participated in the research. “Tendency to Forgive Scale”, “Heartland Forgiveness Scale (Self Forgiveness)”, “Brief Resilience Scale”, and “God Perception Scale” were used as data collection tools in the research. The data obtained within the scope of the research was analyzed using the SPSS (Version 25) program. The findings of the research provide evidence that the love and fear of God among women are reported to be higher than among men. The study also shows there is a positive correlation between income and love and fear of God, which means the lower the income is, the lower the fear and love of God. Marital status and age have also been reported to influence the level of forgiveness. The study demonstrates that religiosity is another factor that is positively correlated with forgiveness. The level of forgiveness is comparatively higher in individuals who identify themselves as religious; it has been found that love of God and fear of God are associated with forgiveness. It has been revealed that there is a significant relationship between psychological resilience, self-forgiveness, and God perception. In other words, self-forgiveness and positive God perception contribute to psychological resilience.
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2010
The present study tested the theoretical formulation based on Bowenian theory and Volfian theology that differentiation of self (DoS) serves as a mediator variable by which dispositional forgiveness is associated with indices of spiritual and mental health. Data were collected in a sample (N ϭ 213) of graduate students (mean age ϭ 34.46 years) at a Protestant-affiliated university. Results supported the hypotheses with DoS mediating the relationship between dispositional forgiveness and (a) spiritual instability, (b) mental health symptoms, and (c) psychological well-being. Implications are considered for future research on forgiveness, DoS, and spirituality, as well as clinical interventions related to self-regulation and trauma symptoms.
Depression research and treatment, 2012
The present investigation examines the prospective associations of religiousness/spirituality with depression and the extent to which various dimensions of forgiveness act as mediating mechanisms of these associations. Data are from a nationally representative sample of United States adults who were first interviewed in 1998 and reinterviewed six months later. Measures of religiousness/spirituality, forgiveness, and various sociodemographics were collected. Depression was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview administered by trained interviewers. Results showed that religiousness/spirituality, forgiveness of oneself and others, and feeling forgiven by God were associated, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, with depressive status. After controlling for initial depressive status, only forgiveness of oneself and others remained statistically significant predictors of depression. Path analyses revealed that religiousness/spirituality conveyed protective...
Religion and the Forgiving Personality
Journal of Personality, 1999
Forgiveness is a concept with deep religious roots. It is also a basic social and psychological phenomenon. In this article, we explore the links between forgiveness and religion by surveying how they are linked in the major monotheistic world religions, and how they appear to be linked empirically. In attempting to account for the current body of empirical findings, we propose four potential substantive and methodological explanations that should be explored in future studies. Because the concept of forgiveness is (a) both spiritual and social-psychological in nature, and (b) possibly linked to some measures of human health and well-being (concerns that have traditionally been of interest to both researchers in personality and researchers in religion), the concept of forgiveness could be an important common ground for future research on the interface of religion and personality. The concept of forgiveness has dual natures: a common one and a transcendent one. In the common, material world, forgiveness is just one more social-psychological phenomenon. We can think about it and study
Psychometric and rationalization accounts of the religion-forgiveness discrepancy
2005
World events and psychological research often fail to support a relationship between religion and forgiveness. We suggest that the gap between general religious support of forgiveness and actual forgiveness by religious individuals (the religionforgiveness discrepancy) described by McCullough and Worthington (1999) may be partly due to methodological shortcomings. We present three studies with 452 undergraduate participants to illustrate how psychometric weaknesses can obscure the relationship between religiousness and transgression-specific forgiveness. We also propose a rationalization explanation that describes how religion might justify unforgiveness. We present a pilot study of 38 undergraduate participants that demonstrates correlations between retributive and compassionate religious beliefs, and transgression-specific forgiveness. We discuss future research directions addressing the religion-forgiveness discrepancy on psychometric and theoretical levels. Although many different world views can serve as meaning systems, religion is unique in its ability to provide a transcendent reality with concomitant moral standards, making it a potentially exceptional structure for guiding people's
Religion, Forgiveness, Hostility and Health: A Structural Equation Analysis
Journal of Religion and Health, 2012
Religious participation has been shown to increase certain factors thought to be protective of health, including social support and positive health habits. The current study considers whether religious participation may likewise have a positive influence on health by increasing forgiveness and diminishing hostility. A structural equation analysis of data collected from a national survey of 1,629 participants supported the hypothesized model that (a) religiosity is related to greater forgiveness, (b) greater forgiveness, in turn, is related to reduced hostility and finally, (c) reduced hostility is related to better subjective health.
The present paper uses an adaptational-continuum model of personality, based on Ferguson’s (2001) health psychology model integrating Eysenck personality factors and coping style, to provide a context for examining the relationship between forgiveness and mental health. Three hundred and twenty respondents completed measures of personality, coping style, forgiveness (forgiveness of self, others, likelihood, presence of positive forgiveness, absence of negative forgiveness), general health, stress, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. Among respondents, all measures of forgiveness, bar one, load negatively on a neuroticism-coping factor. The remaining measure of forgiveness (presence of positive forgiveness) loaded on an extraversion-coping factor. The relationship of the neuroticism-coping-forgiveness factor was associated with poorer mental health, suggesting forgiveness is associated with better mental health within the context of this personality-coping factor. Significant positive relationships were found between the extraversion-coping-forgiveness factor and two measures of positive mental health outcomes (positive affect and life satisfaction) suggesting forgiveness is associated with some aspects of mental health within the context of this personality-coping factor. The present findings suggest that forgiveness, or failure to forgive, can be conceptualised within an adaptational-continuum model of personality.