The decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone was declared over in 2002, but the psychological impact of the conflict remains. The purpose of this study was to determine if forgiveness is related to improved adjustment to trauma and for what demographic groups it is most useful in postwar Sierra Leone. Data were collected as part of the Association for Trauma Outreach and Prevention of Meaningfulworld's humanitarian outreach mission to Sierra Leone in March of 2009. Participants were administered a sociodemographic questionnaire that included gender, age, religion, education, and employment variables. Trauma exposure and posttraumatic symptomatology were assessed using Parts 1 and 3 of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Forgiveness was assessed using the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, which provides scores for total forgiveness and subscores for forgiving affect, behavior, and cognition. The role of gender and age were examined, and several significant relationships between forgiveness and trauma emerged. Trauma exposure and traumatic stress were significantly correlated, although traumatic stress showed a stronger relationship to forgiveness variables. Salient differences emerged between men and women and among older and younger participants. The strongest relationship between traumatic stress and forgiveness emerged in older women.

The present study examined self-reported levels of traumatic stress symptoms, forgiveness, and meaning in life in residents of regions experiencing ongoing violence (Middle East), recent past violence (Africa), distant past violence and disaster (Caucasus), and recent natural disaster (Caribbean). The sample included 900 individuals from Africa (Kenya n = 149; Burundi n = 104; Rwanda n = 57), the Middle East (Israel n = 34; Jordan n = 22; Palestine n = 220), the Caucasus (Armenia n = 109), and the Caribbean (Haiti n = 205). Analyses of covariance controlling for demographic factors revealed significant regional differences. Violent ongoing trauma in the Middle East and recent violent trauma in African countries were associated with higher traumatic stress symptoms than in the Caribbean where trauma was nonviolent and in the Caucasus region where trauma was quite distant. Forgiveness levels were lowest among participants in the Middle East and highest in Africa. Meaning in life was also lowest in the Middle East. There is wide diversity in the sociocultural traumatic events and calamities that befall societies; those events have unique impacts on survivors’ levels of traumatic stress symptoms, forgiveness, and meaning in life. Counselors, clergy, aid-workers, and policymakers should be apprised of the range of sociocultural traumatic experiences and associated differential outcomes.

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Armenia is a small country in the Southern Caucasus region-independent since the fall of the Soviet regime-that is unsettled economically and politically. Research in developing societies like Armenia is limited, especially regarding how people endure adverse living conditions. The present study is the first known examination of the separate and interactive effects of meaning-making and forgiveness as they relate to traumatic stress symptomology in Armenia. Data were collected from 115 Armenian adults. Measures included traumatic stress symptoms, meaning in life, and forgiveness. Greater meaning in one's life was associated with fewer traumatic stress symptoms. The association was significantly stronger for those with higher as compared to lower forgiveness of others. Forgiving others may offer a means of facilitating meaning making as a buffer against traumatic stress symptoms in the midst of difficult social and economic living conditions.

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