e-International Journal of Educational Research

University years are the most stressful period of time for teenagers since they face the challenge of staying away from their family and of adjusting to a new environment. In this period of time, the students have to get used to being away from their families and friends, making friends and maintaining emotional relationships within a new environment and taking the responsibility of their daily lives. The adjustment of students to stressful life conditions positively affects their psychological and physical health. Particular personality traits are known to influence the personal and environmental adjustment of the individuals. In this respect, psychological resiliency and forgiveness concepts grounded in the paradigm of positive psychology can be considered as traits that help the individuals maintain their psychological health even in negative conditions. Psychological resiliency is defined as an ability to withstand stress, loses and catastrophe with a good personal and environmental adjustment. Forgiveness is defined as emotional replacement of negative emotions that harm the individual himself and his environment with positive other-orientated emotions. In positive psychology, both forgiveness and psychological resiliency are stated to be concepts serving for the same purpose in that they both seek to rectify negative situations and relations. In the light of these facts, this study aims to answer the question, “do forgiveness traits of university students towards themselves, others and situations predict their psychological resiliency?”
Method: The research has been conducted with 368 students (264 female, 104 male) studying at Pamukkale University. In the study, Heartland Forgiveness Scale and Psychological Resiliency Scale were used. Heartland Forgiveness Scale was developed by Thompson and his friends (2005), interpretation and adaptation for Turkish culture was performed by Bugay and Demir (2010). The scale is a 7 point- likert scale and consists of 18 items with three sub-sections -forgiving yourself, others and situation-. The Ego Resiliency Scale (Block &Kremen, 1996) was administered to assess trait psychological resiliency which is the capacity to modify responses to changing situational demands; especially frustrating and stressful encounters. Interpretation and adaptation of the scale for Turkish culture is performed by Karaırmak (2006). The scale includes 14 items. Data were investigated through multiple regression analysis. In data analysis, Pearson correlation and stepwise regression were used.
Findings: Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were carried out in order to investigate whether university students' forgiveness grades towards themselves, others and situations predict their psychological resiliency levels or not. According to the research findings, positive and meaningful relations have been found between variables of psychological resiliency and self-forgiveness [r = .38, 95% C.I. (.29, .46)], forgiveness towards others[r = .36, 95% C.I. (.27, .45)] and situational forgiveness [r = .42, 95% C.I. (.33, .50)]. Stepwise regression analysis was carried out in order to understand whether sub-dimensions of trait of forgiveness predict psychological resiliency. According to results of analysis, model was found as significant (F(3, 367) = 37.96, p< .001) and trait of forgiveness was observed to explain psychological resiliency with 24% variance (R2 = .238, Adjusted R2 = .232). According to the results, situational forgiveness was found to explain psychological resiliency variance at the ratio of approximately 17% (R2= .175, adjusted R2= .173). Self-forgiveness explained psychological resiliency variance at the ratio of 4%(ΔR2= .042), and forgiveness towards others explained psychological resiliency at the ratio of 2% (ΔR2= .021).
Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that psychological resilience of the students are predicted by forgiveness towards situation, themselves and others. According to the finding of the study, psychological resilience of the students increase as their forgiveness levels increase.
Keywords: forgiveness, psychological resiliency, university students, multiple regression analysis.