Religiously or spiritually-motivated forgiveness and subsequent health and well-being among young adults: An outcome-wide analysis

ABSTRACT

This study performs an outcome-wide analysis to prospectively examine the associations of forgiveness (including forgiveness of others, self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness) with a range of psychosocial, mental, behavioral and physical health outcomes. Data from the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Growing Up Today Study (Ns ranged from 5,246 to 6,994, depending on forgiveness type and outcome) with 3 or 6 years of follow-up were analyzed using generalized estimating equations. Bonferroni correction was used to correct for multiple testing. All models controlled for sociodemographic characteristics, prior religious service attendance, prior maternal attachment and prior values of the outcome variables. All forgiveness measures were positively associated with all psychosocial well-being outcomes, and inversely associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. There was little association between forgiveness and behavioral or physical health outcomes. Forgiveness may be understood as a good itself, and may also lead to better psychosocial well-being and mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• Forgiveness
• health
• well-being
• religion
• outcome-wide epidemiology

Acknowledgements

We thank the Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School for their support in conducting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Templeton Foundation under Grant #52125 and the National Institutes of Health under Grant ES017876. The National Institutes of Health supports the Nurses’ Health Study II (grant UM1CA176726), and the Growing Up Today Study (grants R01HD045763, R01HD057368, R01HD066963, R01DA033974, K01DA023610, K01DA034753). Funding agencies had no role in the data collection, analysis, or interpretation; nor were they involved in the writing or submission of this publication.