Self-forgiveness and well-being: Does divine forgiveness matter?

ABSTRACT

A reliable association exists between self-forgiveness and well-being. But self-forgiveness and its correlates will not be fully understood without considering forgiveness by God or divine forgiveness, especially in light of the fact that the majority of the population identifies as religious. This study therefore examined the role of divine forgiveness in understanding the association between self-forgiveness and well-being using data collected from 435 young adults. Because well-being is not the absence of distress, this study examined whether self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness relate to psychological well-being and distress in the same way. Self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness were independently related to psychological well-being and distress even with religiosity statistically controlled. Divine forgiveness also moderated the relationship between self-forgiveness and psychological distress in that perceived forgiveness by God was associated with fewer depressive symptoms at lower but not higher levels of self-forgiveness. The implications for future research are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• Forgiveness
• mental health
• positive and negative well-being
• divine forgiveness
• self-forgiveness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This estimate will increase by 2050 as the proportion of those identifying as ‘unaffiliated’ shrinks. See http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation [61082].