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Research on the subjective experience of suffering has typically focussed on older clinical samples living in Western, educated, industrialised, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries. To further extend the existing body of empirical research on suffering to less WEIRD contexts, we use three waves of data (Wave 1: December 2020; Wave 2: January 2021; Wave 3: February 2021) from a sample of nonclinical Indonesian adults (n = 594) to examine associations between suffering, two indices of psychological distress, and 10 facets of well‐being. In our primary analysis, we estimated a series of multiple regression models that adjusted for a range of sociodemographic characteristics, financial and material stability, religious/spiritual factors, prior values of overall suffering, and prior values of each outcome assessed in Wave 1. Results indicated that overall suffering assessed in Wave 2 was associated with an increase in both indices of psychological distress and a decrease in eight facets of well‐being assessed in Wave 3. Using a similar analytic approach, results from a secondary analysis indicated that higher scores on both indices of psychological distress and lower scores on seven of the well‐being facets assessed in Wave 2 were associated with worse subsequent overall suffering assessed in Wave 3. These findings contribute to empirical literature on the implications of suffering for well‐being.

According to some theorising, in collectivistic societies, forgiveness is mainly enacted to maintain relationships, not engender emotional transformation. This present study was designed to explore whether forgiveness affects decisional and emotional forgiveness in Indonesia, a country categorised as collectivistic. The evidence‐based REACH Forgiveness psychoeducational group intervention was adapted to collectivistic culture (REACH forgiveness collectivistic; REACH‐FC), and its efficacy was assessed in a randomised controlled trial. Undergraduates in Indonesia (N = 97; 24 male; 73 female; ages 16–21) were randomly assigned within a 2 × 3(S) quasi‐experimental repeated‐measures design comparing immediate treatment (IT) and waiting list (WL) conditions [Condition (IT, WL) × Time ([S] 3 time points). Harmonious value, a personality variable assessing the strength of participants' desire for group harmony, was the covariate. The condition × time (S) interactions for both decisional and emotional forgiveness were significant, challenging some previous literature. Clearly, not all forms of collectivism have similar effects when individuals and communities deal with transgressions.

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Research suggests that interpersonal forgiveness is beneficial to individual functioning, but few longitudinal studies have explored the independent contributions of decisional and emotional forgiveness to reducing different forms of distress and improving multidimensional well-being. In this three-wave (T1: December 2020; T2: January 2021; T3: February 2021) prospective study of predominantly young Indonesian adults (n = 595), we examined the associations of decisional and emotional forgiveness with three indicators of distress and 10 components of well-being. Applying the outcome-wide analytic template for longitudinal designs, our primary analysis involved estimating two sets of linear regression models (one set for decisional forgiveness and one set for emotional forgiveness) in which the outcomes were regressed on each interpersonal forgiveness process (one outcome at a time). Adjusting for a range of covariates (including prior values of decisional forgiveness, emotional forgiveness, and all 13 outcomes) assessed at T1, decisional forgiveness assessed at T2 was associated with an increase in seven components of well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, physical health, sense of purpose, promote good, delayed gratification, content with relationships, satisfying relationships) approximately 1 month later at T3. In contrast, emotional forgiveness assessed at T2 was associated with an increase in a single component of well-being (i.e., satisfying relationships) assessed at T3. Neither decisional nor emotional forgiveness assessed at T2 showed evidence of associations with any of the subsequent indicators of distress assessed at T3. Our findings suggest that, at least within a principally collectivistic cultural context such as Indonesia, decisional forgiveness in the aftermath of a transgression may have greater short-term benefits for well-being compared to emotional forgiveness. Implications of the findings for research and interventions are discussed.

Religious coping has emerged as a guiding paradigm for understanding ways in which religion shapes how people adapt to life’s most difficult experiences. Although research on religious coping has advanced substantially over the last two decades, there has been a disproportionate focus on noninterpersonal stressors with samples from predominantly Western societies. In this study, we draw on a relational spirituality perspective to examine religious coping in the aftermath of interpersonal hurts among participants from four non-Western countries. With samples from Colombia, Indonesia, South Africa, and Ukraine (N = 3,244), we examined associations of religious coping (as measured by the Brief RCOPE) with anxiety, depression, perceived posttraumatic growth, and well-being. The general patterns that emerged from the country-specific analyses of psychosocial correlates indicated that positive religious coping evidenced its strongest associations with indices of positive functioning (i.e., perceived posttraumatic growth and well-being), whereas negative religious coping yielded its strongest associations with indices of psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression). Hierarchical regressions for each country indicated that the dimensions of religious coping were incrementally associated with all indices of functioning, over and above variance explained by state forgiveness. Overall, the findings were largely comparable to those of prior research with samples from Western societies. Further cross-cultural research is needed to extend our understanding of the role of religious/spiritual coping in dealing with negative life events, particularly in non-Western cultures.

Importance: Forgiveness interventions have been shown in prior randomized trials to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms. Most such interventions require trained therapists, limiting scalability. Objective: To determine whether a brief self-directed forgiveness workbook intervention could alter forgiveness, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Design: A multi-site randomized waitlist-controlled trial was conducted among 4,598 participants. Recruitment occurred from February 11, 2020 to September 30, 2021. Final follow-up occured October 25, 2021. Setting: Participants were recruited from community-based samples in sites in Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Africa, and Ukraine. Participants: Individuals (N = 7,837) were screened for eligibility. For inclusion, participants needed to be ≥18 years and have experienced an interpersonal transgression. Based on these criteria, 4,786 individuals were randomized, but 55 individuals were excluded for suspicious/fraudulent online participation, and 133 were excluded for not providing age or indicating age below 18. The analytic sample consisted of N = 4,598. Interventions: At each site, participants were randomly assigned to either immediate receipt of a self-directed forgiveness workbook intervention, or to receipt after a two-week delay. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcomes were unforgiveness (Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-18), depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms (Brief Symptom Inventory-18) measured at two weeks following intervention assignment. Results: The study sample was median age 26 and 73% female. At two weeks follow-up, unforgiveness was lower among the immediate-treatment group compared to the delayed-treatment group (standardized mean difference=-0.52 [95% CI=-0.58, -0.46]); similar patterns were found for depression (standardized mean difference=-0.22 [95% CI=-0.28, -0.16]) and anxiety symptoms (standardized mean difference=-0.21 [95% CI=-0.27, -0.15]). Conclusions and Relevance: A brief workbook intervention promoted forgiveness and reduced depression and anxiety symptoms. The promotion of forgiveness with such workbooks has the potential for widespread dissemination to improve global mental health. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04257773.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji efektivitas terapi pemaafan (forgiveness) model Enright dengan empat tahap dalam proses pemaafan, yaitu uncovering, decision, work, deepening untuk memfasilitasi pemaafan terhadap orang tua pada remaja korban perceraian. Pendekatan penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan embedded concurrent mixed methods merupakan merupakan metode campuran yang menerapkan satu tahap pengumpulan data data kuantitatif dan kualitatif dalam satu waktu. Subjek dalam penelitian ini adalah seorang remaja perempuan, berusia 20 tahun dan memiliki orang tua yang telah bercerai dan berjumlah satu orang. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan lembar kerja, lembar observasi dan skala yang terdiri dari Skala Decesion Forgiveness Scale (DFS), Skala Transgression Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) dan Emotional Forgiveness Scale (EFS). Penelitian ini menghasilkan modul terapi pemaafaan model proses dari Enright disusun berdasarkan empat tahapan. Terapi pemaafan yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini juga terbukti efektif diberikan pada remaja korban perceraian orang tua guna memaafkan orang tuanya. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari adanya pergerakan kondisi dari subjek penelitian sebelum dan setelah pemberian intervensi. Berdasarkan jurnal harian (homework) yang dicatatkan subjek juga menunjukkan emosi atau respon negatif cenderung menurun dan lebih banyak muncul emosi atau respon positif yang lebih tinggi. Hasil pre-test dan post-test juga memperlihatkan adanya pergerakan skor ke arah yang lebih baik.