The present study examined the effect of forgiveness writing on the shame, depression, and posttraumatic growth in survivors of sexual abuse. To examine this, 32 university students who had experienced sexual abuse were assigned to two groups: a forgi...
The present study examined the effect of forgiveness writing on the shame, depression, and posttraumatic growth in survivors of sexual abuse. To examine this, 32 university students who had experienced sexual abuse were assigned to two groups: a forgiveness writing group and a waiting-list control group. Each group was asked to complete the questionnaires of forgiveness, shame, depression, and posttraumatic growth before and after treatment. The forgiveness writing group wrote about self-forgiveness, situational-forgiveness 'for' four times and each lasting 30 minutes, whereas waiting-list control group was not treated any mediation program.
The results show that the forgiveness level of the forgiveness writing group increased significantly. Also, shame and depression of the forgiveness writing group decreased significantly, and posttraumatic growth of them increased significantly compared to the waiting-list control group.
The finding of this study demonstrated that forgiveness writing therapy reduces shame and depression, as well as improves posttraumatic growth. Further, the result of this study showed that the forgiveness writing therapy could be as an effective method to survivors of sexual abuse. Finally, limitations of this study and suggestions for further studies were discussed.