Perceptions of Divine Forgiveness, Religious Comfort, and Depression in Psychiatric Inpatients: A Mixed Methods Study.

Understanding how forgiveness relates to mental health outcomes may improve clinical care. This study assessed 248 adult psychiatric inpatients, testing associations of forgiveness, religious comfort (RC), religious strain (RS), and changes in depressive symptomatology from admission to discharge. Experiencing divine forgiveness and self-forgiveness was both directly associated with RC and inversely associated with RS. Using structural equation modeling, the path from divine forgiveness to depression through RC was significant, ß = - .106, SE = .046, z = - 2.290, p = .022, bootstrapped 95% CI = - .196 to - .015. Qualitative findings illustrated patients' changed perspectives on divine forgiveness during hospitalization.

Forgiveness in health research and medical practice.

With the rising popularity of positive psychology, research on forgiveness has flourished. Forgiveness has been found to have application to the field of medicine. We review definitions and describe potential physical and mental benefits of forgiveness. We (1) address potential mechanisms by which forgiveness might affect physical health, (2) evaluate the research on forgiveness and mental health, (3) summarize research on interventions to promote forgiveness, (4) examine issues specifically related to medicine in which forgiveness might play an important role, and (5) discuss forgiveness of self and others and seeking forgiveness in light of those applications. We emphasize the importance of one's motive in forgiving, noting that altruistic motives hold greater benefits than do self-interested motives.