The mediator role of forgiveness in the relationship of childhood traumas to adult depression symptoms

Traumatic experiences in childhood that may occur as a result of physical, emotional and sexual neglect and abuse not only negatively affect the child in the short term, but also may cause various psychological problems in adulthood in the long term. Depressive symptoms in adulthood may be one of these problems. Forgiveness, one of the concepts associated with the depressive state, refers to the reframing of the negative internal processes caused by an object that violates rights into more positive or neutral. The object mentioned can be the person themself, others or uncontrollable situations. Traumatic childhood experiences have been found to be associated with person's disposition to forgive as well as depressive symptoms. Therefore, depressive symptoms, forgiveness and childhood traumatic experiences are interrelated. However, as far as is known, there are relatively few studies on how these three variables interact with each other simultaneously and none in Turkey. Based on this, the aim of the current study is to examine the mediating role of forgiveness in the relationship between childhood traumas and depressive symptoms in adulthood. For this purpose, research data was collected from 307 adults aged 18-65 between June and September 2023 by creating an online form including the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Childhood Psychological Trauma Scale and Beck Depression Inventory. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the relationship between adults' depressive symptoms and the traumas they were exposed to in childhood was mediated by their total disposition to forgive. When examined in detail, it was determined that only forgiving self and the situation had a significant mediating effect. It was observed that forgiveness did not mediate the relationship between physical neglect and abuse and depressive symptoms. As a result, the depressive symptom levels of adults exposed to childhood traumas other than physical neglect or abuse change through their tendency to forgive themselves and situations. Therefore, it is seen as a benefit of the study that interventions related to forgiveness to be included in the treatment planning of individuals who had emotional and sexual traumatic experiences in childhood and showed symptoms of depression in adulthood can increase the treatment effectiveness when focusing on forgiving oneself and the situation.