Stress, social support, and health risk behaviours as mediators of the forgiveness-health relation /
Year: 2005
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The mediating roles of stress, social support, and health risk behaviours in the \nrelationships between dispositional forgiveness and mental and physical health were \nexamined. Participants were 748 undergraduate students (554 women, 194 men) entering \ntheir first year of studies at Brock University. Participants, ranging in age from 17 to 25 \nyears, completed the Brock University First Year Health Study and were provided \nmonetary compensation. Dispositional forgiveness, stress, social support, health risk \nbehaviours, mental health, and physical health were measured using self-report methods. \nThe data were analyzed separately for women and men because there were significant \nmean differences on many of the study'S variables. Analyses revealed that the mediated \nrelationships between dispositional forgiveness and health were generally stronger for \nwomen than men. Stress was the most robust mediator of the forgiveness-health relation \nfor both women and men. The only health risk behaviour that mediated the forgivenesshealth \nrelation was physical fitness and this result was found for women only. Social \nsupport mediated several of the relationships between forgiveness and health but not \nothers. Results were discussed with reference to the literature on forgiveness and health. \nSeveral directions for future research were offered, such as conducting longitudinal \nresearch designs to assess the direction of causality better, investigating moderator \nvariables of the forgiveness-health relation, and building models, which incorporate \nmultiple mediators using structural equation modelling techniques.
Author: Michelle. Green
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Brock University
OpenAlex ID: W2794912101