Level of forgiveness in pet owners and evaluation of their general state of health

This study was conducted to evaluate the level of forgiveness and general health state of pet owners. The population of this cross-sectional descriptive study consisted of pet owners who applied to veterinary clinics in Zonguldak Province and districts; the sample consisted of 122 pet owners who applied to these clinics between 17.08.2019 -17.09.2019 and accepted to participate in the study. The data of the study was collected via Trait Forgivingness Scale, The General Health Questionnaire-12 and Personal Information Form. Number Cruncher Statistical System 2007 (NCSS) (Kaysville, Utah, USA) program was used for statistical analysis of the data. The suitability of the data with normal distribution was tested by Shapiro-Wilk test and graphical analysis. In the comparison of the two groups, Student-t test was used for variables that fit normal distribution, and Mann-Whitney U test was used for non-matching variables; in the comparison of more than two groups Oneway ANOVA was used in normal distribution, Kruskal-Wallis test and Dunn-Bonferroni test in non-matching groups, Spearman correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationships between variables. P-value less than 0.05 (p<0.05) is considered statistically significant. As a result of the study, it was found out that married pet owners had less risk in terms of mental health; participants who think that having a pet increases their communication with other people have less risk of developing a mental illness and have a higher level of forgiveness; there was a negative correlation between forgiveness scale scores and General Health Questionnaire-12 scores. Key Words: Forgiveness, Pet, Positive psychology, Psychiatric-mental health nursing