Alternative school student perceptions about forgiveness

ABSTRACT

The investigative setting for this study was an alternative educational program that serves at-risk middle and secondary school students. The study evaluated students' conceptual understandings of forgiveness, their exercise of forgiveness in the face of perceived school-related transgressions, as well as the relationship between the two variables and student mental health and well-being. Overall, the students' cognitive grasp of forgiveness was found to be less sophisticated than was demonstrated by a similar sample of adults, indicating that the students, as a group of externalizing youth, struggled to use forgiveness to resolve relational conflicts. Specific factors that may foster forgiveness in habitually aggressive youth are presented along with recommendations for interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Academics
• behavior
• forgiveness
• school environment

Notes on contributors

Susan Edgar-Smith is a professor at Eastern University, St. Davids, PA. She received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1998.

Ruth Baugher Palmer is a professor at Eastern University, St. Davids, PA. She received her Ph.D. from Temple University in 1994.

Funding

This research was funded by an Eastern University Provost grant received in May 2008.