Expanding the cross-cultural validity of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory short form.

This research assessed the cross-cultural validity and internal consistency of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory short form (EFI-30). A total of 1677 people across four countries (United States, the Philippines, China and Saudi Arabia) participated in the study. Data analysis relied on multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and assessments of internal consistency. The results indicated that the EFI-30 has the same structure and factor loadings in the four countries and that internal consistency for the EFI-30 factors was >0.80 in the four countries. The discrimination values suggest that the instrument can differentiate people with different levels of forgiveness. The analyses in this study indicate that the EFI-30 is a valid and reliable assessment of cognition, behaviour and affect related to forgiveness in the United States, the Philippines, China and Saudi Arabia. Clinicians working in these countries can confidently use this shorter version of the EFI to measure forgiveness.

Mothers' Grief, Forgiveness, and Posttraumatic Growth After the Loss of a Child.

The aim of this study was to investigate maternal grief after losing a child in relation to forgiveness and posttraumatic growth. A sample of 60 grieving mothers from Slovakia completed the following battery: The Texas Revised Inventory of Grief, a modified version of the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. The results showed a negative association between forgiveness and grief and a strong positive association between forgiveness and posttraumatic growth, which was not moderated by the time elapsed since the loss. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 mothers. The data were analyzed through Consensual Qualitative Research to gain deeper understanding of forgiveness and posttraumatic growth experiences after the loss of a child. Categories and subcategories are discussed.

A palliative care intervention in forgiveness therapy for elderly terminally ill cancer patients.

Palliative care is now considered an essential part of end-of-life care, yet little research examines the efficacy of interventions addressing the psychological treatment of dying patients. Forgiveness therapy has been shown to be effective in improving psychological well-being and may provide a valuable addition to a terminal cancer patient's overall treatment plan. This study experimentally tested the effectiveness of a four-week forgiveness therapy in improving the quality of life of elderly terminally ill cancer patients. Participants (n = 20) were randomly assigned to a forgiveness therapy group or to a wait-list control group, which received forgiveness therapy in the second four-week period. All participants completed instruments measuring forgiveness, hope, quality of life, and anger at pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2. The forgiveness therapy group showed greater improvement than the control group, with one-tailed t-tests, on all measures. After receiving forgiveness therapy, participants in both forgiveness treatment conditions demonstrated significant improvements on all measures. The aggregated effect size was large. The four-week forgiveness therapy demonstrated psychological benefits for elderly terminally ill cancer patients and thus may be an appropriate addition to the treatment plan for terminal cancer patients.