OBJECTIVES: Religiousness and spirituality have been shown to be beneficially associated with substance abuse, yet little is known regarding specific aspects thereof. Forgiveness has been shown to be associated with alcohol-related outcomes largely through better mental health. The indirect role of social support, broadly defined, has also been examined but little if any association has been detected. METHODS: Through cross-sectional multiple mediation analyses we examined 2 dimensions of social support, constructive social support and social undermining, as possible mediators of the forgiveness-alcohol outcome relationship. RESULTS: Among college students identified as likely to be hazardous or harmful drinkers (n=126; ♀=60%; white=85%), we found social undermining but not constructive social support, to play a role in the relationship between forgiveness and overall problems with alcohol, consumption, dependence symptoms, negative consequences of use, and risk for relapse. Further, such relationships were observed for forgiveness of self and feeling forgiven by God, but not forgiveness of others. CONCLUSIONS: Both forgiveness of self and feeling forgiven by God were individually associated with less perceived social undermining, which in turn was associated with fewer alcohol-related problems. In addition, in certain instances, direct associations between forgiveness and fewer alcohol-related problems remained. In sum, examining multidimensional social support provides clarity to its role in the forgiveness-addiction association and reinforces the importance of understanding the multidimensional nature of all variables under consideration when conducting forgiveness-based research.

Religiousness and spirituality are important to most Americans, and evidence suggests that they may contribute to both addiction and recovery. Forgiveness is a specific dimension of religiousness and spirituality that may enhance recovery, but the mechanism(s) through which it operates is unknown. We hypothesized that higher levels of forgiveness would be associated with higher levels of mental health and social support, which, in turn, would be associated with improved alcohol-related outcomes. Baseline and 6-month longitudinal data from a sample of 149 individuals with alcohol use disorders seeking outpatient substance abuse treatment were analyzed through multiple-mediation statistical techniques. While previous research has shown direct associations among forgiveness, alcohol-related outcomes, mental health, and social support, this study found that the direct associations between forgiveness and alcohol-related outcomes were no longer significant when mental health and social support were analyzed as mediator variables. At baseline, for each alcohol-related outcome measured (alcohol-related problems, percent heavy drinking days, percent days abstinent, and drinks per drinking day), mental health individually played a role in the relationship with both forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others, fully mediating or operating through an indirect-only pathway. For alcohol-related problems only, mental health fully mediated the relationship with forgiveness of self at follow-up and operated through an indirect-only pathway with forgiveness of others longitudinally. Social support and feeling forgiven by God were nonsignificant variables at baseline, follow-up, and longitudinally.

Objectives: To show forgiveness to be a central component in substance abuse and recovery and to encourage the empirical investigation of such realtionships. Methods: Literature reviewed and synthesized to support the role of forgiveness in addiction and recovery and to justify its empirical investigation. Results: The construct and process of forgiveness are present in 12-Step Facilitation Therapy, Motivational Enhancement Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Coping Skills Therapy, and other psychotherapies applicable to the treatment of substance abuse. Nevertheless, few studies exist to provide empirical support for these relationships. Conclusions: Religion and spirituality can have a salutary effect on substance use disorders. However, little is known regarding the effects of specific manifestations of religiosity and spirituality. Forgiveness, decreasing negative responses to offense irrespective of interaction with the offender, has been argued to be highly relevant to problematic substance use. Although the process of forgiveness is conceptually found in empirically validated forms of treatment for alcohol problems, little quantitative evidence exists to verify and illuminate the relationships between forgiveness and substance abuse. Empirical investigation into the basic, indirect, contextual, and interventional relationships between forgiveness and substance use disorders, including development, maintenance, and recovery, is warranted and encouraged.

Forgiveness is argued to be highly relevant to problematic substance use, yet supportive empirical evidence is lacking. Findings are presented from a longitudinal study exploring the relationship between religiousness and spirituality (RS) variables and alcohol use disorders. We examined forgiveness of self (ForSelf), of others (ForOthers), and by God (ByGod), hypothesizing positive relationships with RS and negative relationships with alcohol use and consequences, at both baseline (N = 157) and six-month follow-up (N = 126). ForSelf scores were significantly lower than ForOthers and ByGod scores, and ForOthers scores increased modestly over time. ByGod was most consistently associated with other RS variables. ForSelf and ForOthers were associated with alcohol-related variables at both time points, and baseline ForSelf and ForOthers were associated with fewer drinking consequences at follow-up, but not after controlling for other pertinent variables. ForSelf may be most difficult to achieve and thus most important to recovery, thereby preventing full recovery and fostering relapses.

Although forgiveness is a broad psychological construct of increasing interest, the majority of research has focused on forgiveness of another person for a specific transgression. Independent of other dimensions of forgiveness, self-forgiveness has been significantly associated with health and well-being. Many dimensions of forgiveness share common definitional components; however, due to conceptual differences based on the self as both the offender and the offended, a distinct definition of self-forgiveness is necessary. Indeed, definition and resultant measurement-related limitations have likely slowed the progression of research on self-forgiveness, including understanding the role of self-forgiveness in the promotion of health and well-being and the role of self-forgiveness in facilitating treatment itself. A comprehensive literature review was conducted revealing 177 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles focused on the psychology of self-forgiveness. Of those 177 articles, 85 (48.02%) contained explicit definition-based information regarding self-forgiveness as a particular construct, from which 5 key distinctive definitional components were identified: reconciliation, acceptance, accountability, human-connectedness, and changecommitment. A comprehensive and accessible definition of self-forgiveness is proposed based on a consensus of the scientific peer-reviewed psychological literature. In addition, implications of a consensus definition for more effective assessment and treatment are discussed.

Forgiveness is a concept that is strongly rooted in Christianity. Forgiveness therapy was developed with Christian principles and has proven to be successful for Christian counselors. However, forgiveness has not been explored from the perceptions of secular counselors. Specifically, it is not known if secular counselors are using concepts that are similar to Christian forgiveness therapy. Using forgiveness therapy, this qualitative grounded theory study described the experiences, thoughts, and understanding of forgiveness from the views of secular counselors. Research questions addressed if secular mental counselors have a concept similar to forgiveness therapy as defined in the Christian counseling literature. Individual interviews were recorded via Zoom, transcribed, open coded, and analyzed to produce themes. The 10 themes that were generated from the data included (a) varied theoretical orientations, (b) need to address/assess client anger, (c) perceptions of anger, (d) various meanings of forgiveness, (e) views on reconciliation, (f) acceptance and moving forward, (g) working with client trauma, (h) mindfulness is the key, (i) participants' lives and their personal resiliency, and (j) same approach used to address various types of anger. The results demonstrated that the secular counselors in this study believed that forgiveness is not needed to address anger. Counselors who read this study will gain a greater understanding of forgiveness, as well as counseling techniques and theories used to address anger from the standpoint of secular counselors. Information from this study may be used in the development and education of all counselors and will increase understanding of varied approaches in counseling.

Psychology researchers have been gathering information regarding the positive effects of forgiveness, demonstrating that they contribute to better overall physical and emotional wellbeing. Individuals who have suffered a transgression can remain in a place of destructive anger and resentment for years. Long-term, these negative states can have deleterious effects emotionally, physically, and socially. Understanding how to help those who are suffering move past their victimization can have a positive impact. It is therefore important to conduct research to better understand forgiveness through the lived experience of individuals who have experienced some form of victimization. Using evolutionary psychology as the theoretical framework, the motivations for revenge and forgiveness become clearer. The goal of this multiple case study was to examine an individual's process of forgiveness and how it was achieved following the experience of a significant transgression. Nine participants agreed to participate in an in-depth semi-structured interview; this purposeful sample of individuals who had suffered either criminal victimization or interpersonal betrayal, and who had gone through the forgiveness process were selected for this study. The data analysis plan followed Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis guide to classify, analyze, and report the themes that emerged from the data collected. The findings highlighted the processes whereby forgiveness is achieved, A total of six themes were identified: forgiveness perspectives, resentments and anger, safety, motivations, mediators, and resilience/personal growth. The most notable mediators in the process of forgiveness among participants were compassion/empathy and receiving an acknowledgement or explanation/sincere apology from the offender. In conclusion, this research attempts to bring about positive social change by supporting practitioners in helping the populations they serve, as well as further other important research on forgiveness.

In a sector that has traditionally relied on intrinsically motivated employees, research has shown that public employees care more about serving society than reaping personal gains. Recently, the public sector implemented extrinsic rewards available to their workforce. Understanding the impact extrinsic rewards has on individuals employed in the public sector should be studied and interpreted before more personal rewards are offered by public institutions. This study examined the public service motivation (PSM) of faculty at Mississippi State University (MSU) hired between October 1, 2007 – October 1, 2016. Quantitative methods were used to analyze differences in PSM among faculty with outstanding student loan debt and those lacking debt. This study used a partial measurement of James Perry’s PSM measureable scale. By measuring self-sacrifice levels, this study determined the levels faculty at MSU are willing to substitute their personal interest for the good of society. Specifically, this study focused on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program offered by the U.S. Department of Education. Data were collected through MSU’s class climate electronic survey system. In addition to the 8 items on Perry’s PSM self-sacrifice dimension, closed-ended and multiple choice questions were asked to collect demographic information related to age, household income, student loan debt, and awareness/interest in the PSLF. The results did not reveal any statistically significant difference between faculty with outstanding student loan debt and those without student loan debt. However, the results revealed beneficial information that can be used to understand the motivation of faculty and their desire to reap extrinsic rewards. The majority of respondents indicated that they did not have outstanding student loan debt and the level of interest in PSLF was less than half of the respondents. PSLF was designed to relieve public sector employees of their student loan burdens as well as motivate individuals to seek careers in public service. The literature and data collected in this study suggest that the public sector is still dominated by intrinsically motivated employees. Future research studies should expand this quantitative analysis over various populations of public sector employees and implement the findings into the future practices of public administrations.

Veterans in America are at 22% increased risk for suicide compared to the general population, perhaps due to military experiences (e.g., killing another person) that contribute to maladaptive cognitive-emotional functioning, including feelings of self-blame. A lack of self-forgiveness may maintain feelings of shame, conceptualized as humiliation or distress following perception of having behaved wrongly, which may, further, deleteriously impact interpersonal functioning, increasing suicide risk. Shame may lead an individual to withdraw from others, resulting in thwarted belongingness (i.e., a perception of a lack of membership with a group), and may contribute to feeling like a burden (i.e., a perception of being taxing or restrictive to others), both of which are known predictors of suicide. The ability to forgive the self, however, may reduce feelings of shame and, in turn, improve interpersonal functioning and suicide risk; yet, this model has not been previously tested. At the bivariate level, we hypothesized that shame, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and suicide risk would all be positively related, and that they would all be inversely related to self-forgiveness. At the multivariate level, we tested two serial mediation models, hypothesizing that the relation between self-forgiveness and suicide risk would be mediated by shame (1st order) and perceived burdensomeness/thwarted belongingness (2nd order), such that lower levels of self-forgiveness would be associated with greater perceptions of shame and, in turn, to greater perceptions of burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, and consequent greater suicide risk. Participants (N=551; Mean Age=50.4, SD=16.6) were recruited via online invitations distributed to veteran social media groups and were predominantly male (n=382, 69.3%) and White (n=469, 85.1%). Participants completed Fetzer’s Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality (BMMRS), the Differential Emotions Scale (DES-IV), the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised (SBQR). Bivariate correlations and multivariate analyses were conducted via the SPSS PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013), covarying age, race, and sex, and utilizing a 10,000 bootstrapping sample. All bivariate hypotheses were supported at the pβ=.102, p=.437) when shame and perceived burdensomeness were added to the model (β=.642, pβ=.048, p=.733) when shame and thwarted belongingness were added to the model (β=.630, p

The current study examined forgiveness within the parent-adolescent relationship. Theoretical foundations and definitions of forgiveness were examined, after which a relational approach to forgiveness was explored. The direct influences of the quality of mother- and father-child relationships (parent and observed reports) and modeled marital forgiveness on early adolescents' forgiveness toward both mothers and fathers (child report) were examined; the mediating roles of parent forgiveness of child and adolescent social-cognitive skills (empathy and emotional regulation) were also analyzed. Mother, father, and child self-reported questionnaires and in-home observational data were taken from Time 1 and Time 3 (two years later) of the Flourishing Families Project and included reports from 334 two-parent families with an early adolescent child (M age of child at Time 1 = 11.24). Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine relationships between the variables. Mother- and father-child relational variables (both parent self-reports and observed reports at Time 1) were found to be significantly related to mother and father forgiveness of the adolescent child two years later. Interestingly, only mother forgiveness of the child was significantly related to adolescent forgiveness of the mother. Further, father forgiveness of mother (spouse report at Time 1) was directly related to adolescent forgiveness of the father. In addition, direct significant paths from parent-child relational variables to adolescent forgiveness were from the mother's report of connectedness with the child as well as observed reports of father-child connectedness. Significant indirect paths were also found: Observations of warmth within the mother-child dyad influenced adolescent forgiveness toward parents via empathy, while father's report of connectedness influenced adolescent forgiveness via emotional regulation. Finally, empathy and emotional regulation were the most salient direct precursors of adolescent forgiveness of parents. The relevance of modeling for forgiveness research, unique contributions of mothers and fathers, differences by reporter, developmental aspects of forgiveness in adolescence, and the importance of studying forgiveness within the parent-child relationship were discussed.