Effects of a culture-adaptive forgiveness intervention for Chinese college students

ABSTRACT: The understanding and application of forgiveness varies across cultures. The current study aimed to examine the effect of a culture-adaptive Forgiveness Intervention on forgiveness attitude, self-esteem, empathy and anxiety of Mainland Chinese college students. Thirty-six participants were randomly allocated to either experimental groups or a wait-list comparison group, with 28 retained finally. Forgiveness, empathy, self-esteem and anxiety were assessed one week before and after a 10-week forgiveness programme integrating Enright process model and Chinese values. The intervention increased participants' forgiveness attitudes. No significant effect was reported on empathy, self-esteem and anxiety. These findings demonstrate that the Culture-adaptive forgiveness intervention is potentially promising to enhance forgiveness attitude in societies where collectivist, cooperative and interdependent principles are dominant.