Abstract
We examined three religiously/spiritually motivated forgiveness types, forgiveness of self, others, and divine forgiveness, and their association with depressive symptoms, across adolescent gender and age groups. Twelve- to 18-year-old patients arriving for primary care completed a 3-item Forgiveness measure and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Girls reported a higher tendency to forgive others compared to boys, and self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness tended to decline with age in both genders. We found no significant associations between forgiveness and depression among boys. Among girls, higher self-forgiveness was associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Forgiveness of others was associated with less depression only among 17–18-year-old girls. Divine forgiveness showed no association with depression in either gender. Forgiveness of self and others appears to be protective factors for depression among adolescent girls.
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Acknowledgements
The data utilized in this study were originally obtained with support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R21 AA13029) and the Fetzer Institute awarded to authors Knight, Harris, and Sherritt. Other support was provided by grant #K07 AA013280 from NIAAA (Knight) and Maternal and Child Health Bureau grants #5T20MC000-11–06 (JRK) and #5T71MC 00,009–10 (Harris). I, Kateryna Kuzubova, affirm that everyone who has contributed to this work has been acknowledged.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. This was a secondary analysis study. Material preparation and data collection were performed by John R. Knight, Sion Kim Harris, and research assistants of the Center for Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Research. Additional assistance in recruitment was provided by clinicians and staff of the Adolescent/Young Adult Medical Practice at Boston Children's Hospital; the Adolescent Clinic at the Floating Hospital for Children, Tufts Medical Center; and the Adolescent Clinic at the Martha Eliot Health Center, Boston Children’s Hospital. Analysis of data and supervision of the project were performed by Sion Kim Harris. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Kateryna Kuzubova, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Kuzubova, K., Knight, J.R. & Harris, S.K. Adolescent Gender and Age Differences in Religiously and Spiritually Motivated Types of Forgiveness and the Relationship to Depressive Symptoms. J Relig Health 60, 2662–2676 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01217-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01217-6