Responsibility as a Moderator Between Self-Forgiveness and Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

This study evaluated the relationship between participants' self-forgiveness and their depressive symptoms, as well as whether responsibility served as a moderator of this relationship. The Heartland Forgiveness Self subscale (self-forgiveness), the Responsibility Attitude Scale (responsibility), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale - Revised (depressive symptoms) were administered to 43 undergraduates. It was found that self-forgiveness and depressive symptoms had a statistically significant negative relationship. It also was found that responsibility did moderate this relationship, although it did not account for all of the variance. To better understand this relationship, the correlations between depressive symptoms and self-forgiveness were compared between high responsibility and low responsibility groups and were not statistically significantly different. This study highlights the need to measure responsibility when researching self-forgiveness.