The role of perceived parental acceptance-rejection, self esteem, and emotion regulation difficulties in predicting forgiveness levels of university students

The aim of the study was to investigate the predictive role of parental acceptance-rejection, self esteem, and emotion regulation difficulties in forgiveness levels of university students. The sample of the study was consisted of 501 undergraduate students studying in different faculties and departments of Ege University during academic years between 2018-2019. Data was collected using The Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Parental Acceptance-Rejection Scale, Two-Dimensional Self Esteem Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and Personal Information Form. The stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the predictive power of independent variables in dependent variables. Stepwise multiple regression analysis findings showed that; university students' emotion regulation difficulties levels predicted forgiveness levels in a negative direction, and had an important predictor role by explaining 32% of the changes in forgiveness levels, self-esteem levels predicted forgiveness levels in a positive direction, and explained 1% of the changes in forgiveness levels, but parental acceptance-rejection perception levels did not play a role in predicting the level of forgiveness. The findings were discussed based on the related literature and some suggestions were made for future research.