Efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions to promote forgiveness: A meta-analysis.
2013/12/23 by Nathaniel G. Wade, William T. Hoyt, Julia E. M. Kidwell +1 · 29 citations
Psychology · #Forgiveness and Related Behaviors #Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies #Counseling Practices and Supervision
paper · doi:10.1037/a0035268
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis addressed the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions to help people forgive others and to examine moderators of treatment effects. METHOD: Eligible studies reported quantitative data on forgiveness of a specific hurt following treatment by a professional with an intervention designed explicitly to promote forgiveness. Random effects meta-analyses were conducted using k = 53 posttreatment effect sizes (N = 2,323) and k = 41 follow-up effect sizes (N = 1,716) from a total of 54 published and unpublished research reports. RESULTS: Participants receiving explicit forgiveness treatments reported significantly greater forgiveness than participants not receiving treatment (Δ+ = 0.56 [0.43, 0.68]) and participants, receiving alternative treatments (Δ+ = 0.45 [0.21, 0.69]). Also, forgiveness treatments resulted in greater changes in depression, anxiety, and hope than no-treatment conditions. Moderators of treatment efficacy included treatment dosage, offense severity, treatment model, and treatment modality. Multimoderator analyses indicated that treatment dosage (i.e., longer interventions) and modality (individual > group) uniquely predicted change in forgiveness compared with no-treatment controls. Compared with alternative treatment conditions, both modality (individual > group) and offense severity were marginally predictive (ps < .10) of treatment effects. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that using theoretically grounded forgiveness interventions is a sound choice for helping clients to deal with past offenses and helping them achieve resolution in the form of forgiveness. Differences between treatment approaches disappeared when controlling for other significant moderators; the advantage for individual interventions was most clearly demonstrated for Enright-model interventions, as there have been no studies of individual interventions using the Worthington model.
Citations
Cited by
- Longitudinal associations of dispositional forgivingness with multidimensional well-being: a two-wave outcome-wide analysis in the Global Flourishing Study
- Flourishing in critical dialogue
- Undermining Free Will Belief Increases Forgiveness of Self and Others
- Health effects of adverse childhood events: Identifying promising protective factors at the intersection of mental and physical well-being
- Understanding the Relationship Between State Forgiveness and Psychological Wellbeing: A Qualitative Study. [europepmc]
- What Would I Know About Mercy? Faith and Optimistic Expectancies Among African Americans. [europepmc]
- Traditional Bullying, Cyberbullying and Mental Health in Early Adolescents: Forgiveness as a Protective Factor of Peer Victimisation. [europepmc]
- Religiously or Spiritually-Motivated Forgiveness and Subsequent Health and Well-Being among Young Adults: An Outcome-Wide Analysis. [europepmc]
- Forgiving Adolescents: Far From Depression, Close to Well-Being. [europepmc]
- Efficacy of the REACH Forgiveness Intervention in Indian College Students. [europepmc]
- Forgiveness of others and subsequent health and well-being in mid-life: a longitudinal study on female nurses. [europepmc]
- Assessing Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Heartland Forgiveness Scale. [europepmc]
- Forgiveness Interventions for Older Adults: A Review. [europepmc]
- Addressing the COVID-19 Mental Health Crisis: A Perspective on Using Interdisciplinary Universal Interventions. [europepmc]
- Construct validity of two measures of self-forgiveness in Portugal: a study of self-forgiveness, psychological symptoms, and well-being. [europepmc]
- The Future of Evidence-Based Temperance Interventions. [europepmc]
- Forgiveness in the Modulation of Responsibility in a Sample of Italian Adolescents with a Tendency towards Conduct or Obsessive-Compulsive Problems. [europepmc]
- Effects of gratitude intervention on mental health and well-being among workers: A systematic review. [europepmc]
- Indirect Effects of Forgiveness on Psychological Health Through Anger and Hope: A Parallel Mediation Analysis. [europepmc]
- Toward a Unified Framework for Positive Psychology Interventions: Evidence-Based Processes of Change in Coaching, Prevention, and Training. [europepmc]
- A meta-analysis of forgiveness education interventions' effects on forgiveness and anger in children and adolescents. [europepmc]
- Cyber victimization and well-being in adolescents: The sequential mediation role of forgiveness and coping with cyberbullying. [europepmc]
- The Validation of the Decisional and Emotional Forgiveness Scale among a Chinese Sample: The Mediating Role of Forgiveness between Stress Perception and Resilience. [europepmc]
- The relationships between trait anger, forgiveness, and subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: a moderated mediating model under lockdown situation. [europepmc]
- Do Forgiveness Campaign Activities Improve Forgiveness, Mental Health, and Flourishing? [europepmc]
- Longitudinal associations of spousal support and strain with health and well-being: An outcome-wide study of married older U.S. Adults. [europepmc]
- From antidepressants and psychotherapy to oxytocin, vagus nerve stimulation, ketamine and psychedelics: how established and novel treatments can improve social functioning in major depression. [europepmc]
- Spirituality-Based Intervention in Hypertension: EFfects on Blood PrEssure and EndotheliaL Function-FEEL Trial Results. [europepmc]
- International REACH forgiveness intervention: a multisite randomised controlled trial. [europepmc]
Related