The effect of the psychoeducation program for developing forgiveness in the context of psychology of religion and values on the hopelessness level and spiritual well-being of adolescents

In the study, it was aimed to determine the effect of religion and values-based Forgiveness Enhancement Psychoeducation Program (AGPEP) on adolescents' decision to forgive, forgiveness, hopelessness, mindfulness and spiritual well-being levels. In line with the aim of the study, the AGPEP developed by the researcher was applied to 20 (9 girls and 11 boys) ninth and tenth grade students studying at Private Antalya OSB Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in the 2022-2023 academic year. The AGPEP was spread over a total of nine weeks and nine sessions of 50-60 minutes were conducted one day a week. Forgiveness decision, forgiveness, hopelessness, mindfulness and spiritual well-being measurements were made before the first session of the AGPEP and these measurements were repeated after the completion of the last session. The pre-test scores of the participants before the AGPEP and post-test scores after the AGPEP were compared using dependent sample t-test in SPSS 26.00. According to the findings of the study, the participants' decision to forgive, self-forgiveness, forgiveness of others and total forgiveness scores increased significantly after the 9-week AGPEP. In addition, there was a significant decrease in the participants' hopelessness levels after the training. As another outcome of AGPEP, significant increases were observed in participants' mindfulness and spiritual well-being. Keywords: Adolescence, forgiveness, forgiveness interventions, hopelessness, mindfulness, spiritual well-being, psychology of religion.