Forgiveness, vengeance, social connectedness and subjective well-being of university students: A study on examining different structural models

The present study investigated the relationship among subjective well-being, forgiveness, vengeance, and social connectedness in Turkish university students. Participants were 779 [489(62.8%) females, 290(37.2%) males, Mage = 20.67 years, SD = 1.94, and age range: 17-34) university students enrolled at Anadolu University. Participants completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, the Vengeance Scale, and the Social Connectedness Scale. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedure. The structural equation modeling indicated that social connectedness partially mediated the effect of forgiveness on subjective well-being, while social connectedness fully mediated the effect of vengeance on subjective well-being. Alternative model revealed that forgiveness fully mediated the impact of social connectedness on subjective well-being and that forgiveness fully mediated the impact of vengeance on subjective well-being. Bootstrapping precodure comfirmed significance of indirect effects. The possible explanations and future directions are discussed in the light of relevant literature. Keywords: Subjective well-being, Forgiveness, Vengeance, Social connectedness,Positive psychology, Structural equation modeling, Bootstrapping