State-Trait Personality Inventory

State-Trait Depression Inventory (STDI) was used to measure depression (Spielberger, 2003). A 20-item questionnaire was administered that corresponds to the depression subscale of State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI). It employed a four-point Likert scale with 1 meaning “almost always” and 4 meaning “almost never”. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the scale in the present study is 0.93. A subscale of Ryff’s Scale of Psychological Well-Being entitled Positive Relations with Others was employed (Ryff, 1989), using a six-point Likert scale (0 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the scale in the present study is 0.83.

A demographic data sheet was used to obtain information about gender, age, education,

The principles of research ethics were strictly observed throughout both data collection and processing.

Results

Correlations between forgiveness and all the investigated variables

The main research question was whether there are statistically significant relationships between the overall degree of trait forgiveness and selected aspects of mental health: positive mental health, trait anxiety, trait depression and the quality of interpersonal relationships. The collected data was processed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The overall score received for the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS) was compared with the overall score for the Mental Health Continuum Scale (MHC), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), State-Trait Depression Inventory (STDI) and Positive Relations with Others (PRWO).

Table 1: Coefficients of Correlation between Forgiveness, Positive Mental Health, Trait Anxiety, Trait Depression and Positive Relations with Others Positive Mental Health Trait

Anxiety Trait

Depression Positive

Relations with Others

Forgiveness r r r

1). Trait forgiveness was found to be significantly positively correlated with both positive mental health and positive relations with others and negatively correlated with trait anxiety and trait depression. The relationship between trait forgiveness and trait anxiety can be considered very strong. There is a substantial correlation between trait forgiveness and trait depression, and also between trait forgiveness and positive mental health. There is a moderate correlation between trait forgiveness and positive relations with others. In order to learn about the differences between the two types of forgiveness (forgiveness of self and of others) and their connections with the investigated variables expressing the level of mental health (positive mental health, trait anxiety, trait depression and the quality of interpersonal relationships), correlation matrices were employed.

Again, the data was processed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Here, it was the scores for the two subscales of Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS) that were compared with the overall scores for the Mental Health Continuum Scale (MHC), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), State-Trait Depression Inventory (STDI) and Positive Relations with Others