| This study was aimed at validating the effectiveness of a forgiveness educational program for adolescent female aggressive victims in Korea, in comparison with a skillstreaming program group and a no-treatment group. Aggressive victims are at higher risk for peer rejection and behavioral problems than either aggressors or victims only (Kumpulainen et al., 1998 Haynie et al., 2001). One factor with the potential to enhance resiliency for aggressive victims is "forgiveness." Forgiveness contributes to decreased anger and increased emotional and behavioral regulation. As an aggressive victim takes on the role of forgiver, s/he may begin to develop empathy for his/her own victims, thus quelling aggressive behavior.Forty-eight adolescent female aggressive victims, aged from 12 to 21, were recruited from a middle school and a correctional facility and randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group participated in an intervention program based on the Enright Forgiveness Process Model. The second group participated in a skillstreaming program. The third group received no treatment. Both experimental and alternative treatments were independently implemented by two facilitators in order to avoid counselor effects.As hypothesized, the participants in the forgiveness group had more improvement in regulating anger, fostering empathy, modifying attributional bias, and reducing aggression and delinquency relative to skillstreaming and no-treatment groups. This improvement was maintained two months after the end of intervention.The current study contributes to the validity of the Enright Forgiveness Process Model as an intervention model to assist youths suffering from peer harassment. This study is the first empirical research that applies a forgiveness intervention to female adolescents in Korea, with the purposes of promoting psychological well-being and reducing behavioral problems. This is also the first study to include the seeking of forgiveness along with forgiving. On the basis of the current research findings, healing the past hurts of victimization, and helping to reconcile victims and aggressors can have a widespread impact in reducing delinquency, aggression, and school violence. |
