Investigating relationship between psychological trait resilience and forgiveness among internally displaced persons

Abstract

In general, conflict has many adverse effects on individuals’ lives. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological trait resilience and forgiveness among internally displaced persons (IDPs). The sample consisted of 244 IDPs (111 males and 133 females) who have been exposed to various stressful situations. Age of participants ranged between 18 and 60 years (M = 32.63 years, SD = 8.18). Psychological Trait Resilience Scale and Enright Forgiveness Inventory were used through a cross-sectional study to collect data. The results showed that IDPs reported low levels of resilience and forgiveness. The results also indicated that ecological resilience was positively related with emotional, behavioral, and cognitive forgiveness, while engineering resilience was positively related with emotional and cognitive forgiveness. Adaptive resilience was found to be positively related with emotional forgiveness. Regression analysis indicated that ecological resilience uniquely predicted emotional, behavioral, and cognitive forgiveness after controlling for demographic characteristics. These results suggest that higher levels of resilience are important for forgiveness among IDPs. Interventions aiming to enhance IDPs’ forgiveness should account for psychological trait resilience.