A quantitative study of forgiveness and divorce adjustment in divorce recovery groups

The intense pain that is often associated with the dissolution of a marital relationship can significantly impair individual functioning. Given the alarming rate of divorce in the United Sates, the issue of divorce adjustment has become a critical concern for hurting individuals, helping professionals, and society. Divorce recovery groups offer a venue for those going through marital separation and divorce to receive informational, social, and emotional support. Particular interest is building in psychosocial interventions that promote forgiveness as a means of psychological and interpersonal healing. This nonrandomized one-group pretest-posttest study investigated the levels of forgiveness of former spouse and divorce adjustment by separated and divorced individuals after attending divorce recovery support groups. It was hypothesized that participants would report increased levels of forgiveness of former spouse and divorce adjustment. It was also hypothesized that increases in forgiveness would be associated with increases in divorce adjustment. Instruments used were the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) to measure divorce adjustment and the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (Enright & Rique, 2000) to assess forgiveness of former spouse. The related samples t test was used to examine the differences between the pre- and posttest means of the dependent variables of forgiveness and divorce adjustment. Individual pre- and posttest results were not analyzed. The results were not statistically significant that mean levels of forgiveness scores increased, while it was significant that divorce adjustment scores improved. A significant correlation was found between posttest measures of forgiveness and divorce adjustment.