A meta-analysis of the association between forgiveness of others and physical health.

Lee YR, Enright RD

Psychology & health · May 1, 2019

Objective: This meta-analysis tested the relation between forgiveness of others and physical health (PH). Main Outcome Measures: State forgiveness, trait forgiveness, and physical health measures were included. Results: A hundred and twenty-eight studies (N = 58,531) were retrieved, in which the mean effect sizes showed a significant positive relationship between forgiveness of others and PH (r = 0.14, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.11, 0.17]). Further, no moderators showed a significant relation between forgiveness of others and PH. Conclusions: The positive relation between forgiveness of others and PH was not affected by potential moderators. Because the results are correlational, more forgiveness interventions may be needed to examine the causal effect of the relation between forgiveness of others and PH.

PMID: 30669877 · DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2018.1554185