Rumination, anger and anger expression styles as predictors of forgiveness in adolescents

The main aim of this present study is to examine the relationship between forgiveness, rumination, anger and anger expression styles. In this respect, the study was conducted with the participation of 500 students attending 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade from three high schools in Çukurova district of Adana. Data about some of the personal information of adolescents obtained by using "Personal Information Form" which prepared by the researcher, data on the level of forgiveness in adolescents were obtained by using "Forgiveness Flexibility Scale High School Form" (Çolak, Koç, Eker & Düşünceli, 2017), data on the level of rumination were obtained by using "Ruminative Response Scale Short Form" (Treynor, 2003), data related to anger/anger expression styles were obtained by using "State-Trait Anger Expression Scale" (Spielberger, 1983). Whether there is a significant difference by gender in terms of forgiveness, rumination, anger and anger expression styles was analyzed by t-test. The findings from the result of Pearson's Correlation were examined in order to reveal the relationship between the variables and then multiple regression analyze were applied to datas obtained from the research results. In the study, multiple regression analysis was applied to test whether rumination, anger and anger expression styles associated with forgiveness predict forgiveness. According to the results which obtained from this present study, it was found that the score of anger has negative significant relationship with total score of forgiveness. Similarly score obtained from anger expression styles of internalized anger and externalized anger has a negative and significant relationship with total score of forgiveness. Oppositely, score obtained from anger control has positive and significant relationship with total score of forgiveness. There was no significant relationship between forgiveness and rumination. On the other hand score obtained from rumination has negative and significant relationship with the recognition sub-dimension of forgiveness in adolescents. According to the results which obtained from this present study, it was found that the score of anger has positive significant relationship with total score of rumination. Similarly score obtained from anger expression styles of internalized anger and externalized anger has a positive and significant relationship with total score of rumination. In addition, rumination and internalized anger scores are significantly higher in girls than in boys. As a result of multiple regression analysis, it was seen that all sub-dimensions of anger expression style significantly predicted the total score of forgiveness, whereas rumination and anger did not significantly predict. While internalized anger and externalized anger estimates negatively the total score of forgiveness, anger control estimates it in a positive way. As a result of the regression analyzes, it was found that internalized anger, anger control and rumination significantly predicted the level of forgiveness in girl adolescents and externalized anger and anger control significantly predicted the level of forgiveness in boy adolescents. While internalized anger estimates negatively the total score of forgiveness in girl adolescents, anger control and rumination estimates it in a positive way. Also externalized anger estimates negatively the total score of forgiveness in boy adolescents, anger control estimates it in a positive way. In boy adolescents, externalized anger and anger control predict forgiveness recognition. Also forgiveness internalize sub-dimensions and anger control predicts forgiveness application sub-dimension significantly. In girl adolescents anger, internalized anger and anger control predict forgiveness recognition. Than internalized anger and rumination predict forgiveness internalize sub-dimension significantly. In addition anger control and rumination predict forgiveness application sub-dimension significantly. It is seen that girl adolescents explain the total score and all sub-dimensions of forgiveness more than boys together with independent variables. Keywords: Forgiveness, rumination, anger and anger expression styles