The Relationship Between College Students Adult Attachment And Forgiveness: The Mediating Role Of Rumination And Empathy

Forgiveness is one of the24values in action in PositivePsychology, for its importance to individual s physical andpsychological health. Earlier studies have suggested that attachmentstyle which was formed in the early childhood and developed throughthe whole life, affects the realizing of forgiveness in interpersonalconflicts. This essay explores self-forgiveness and interpersonalforgiveness from the view of adult attachment and examines ruminationand empathy as the mediators between the relationship of attachmentand forgiveness. College students in Changchun were measured byquestionnaires. Results from the study showed that:A. The difference between the levels of forgiveness of individualwho are different attachment styles is significant. Ones in secureattachment style are easier to forgive others; secure and avoidant onesare easier to forgive themselves.B. There is interaction between the effects of attachment styleand rumination to self-forgiveness. The level of self-forgiveness ofthe avoidant ones is mediated by rumination. Interpretation of theinteraction identified that for avoidant style, higher self-forgiveness was associated with lower rumination, while for the anxietyones, self-forgiveness is not associated with rumination.C. Significant correlations revealed that rumination was inverselyrelated to self-forgiveness, while high rumination was associated with low self-forgiveness.D. Empathy is significantly negative related to self-forgivenessand positive to interpersonal forgiveness.E. Attachment anxiety is significantly negative related to self-forgiveness. While rumination mediated the relation between anxietyand self-forgiveness.F. Attachment avoidance is significantly negative related tointerpersonal forgiveness. Empathy mediated the relation betweenavoidance and interpersonal forgiveness.The results of the study investigated the effect of attachment toself-forgiveness and interpersonal forgiveness in a more comprehensiveway. The construction of the model further clarify the relationshipbetween variables, and enrich the research practice of the attachmentand forgiveness. It is conducive to enhancing the level of forgivenessof college students, and benefit to improve the insecure attachmentindividuals’ mental health level. It can provide some theoreticalsupport for the forgiveness intervention and application.