It is conceivable that one’s level of self-forgiveness is likely to be influenced by the extent to which one feels forgiven by God. Also, self-forgiveness, especially when the self-offense involves wronging another, is likely to be influenced by the extent to which one feels forgiven by the victim. Therefore, this study was aimed at simultaneously examining the interplay between divine, victim, and self-forgiveness as well as their effects on psychological outcomes. In Study 1, we examined the relative strength of divine and victim forgiveness as predictors of self-forgiveness and found that divine and victim forgiveness predicted self-forgiveness independently from each other. In Study 2, we examined the unique effects of three types of forgiveness on psychological outcomes and found that while all three types of forgiveness are associated with each other, after controlling for the other two types of forgiveness, self-forgiveness alone predicted anger, anxiety, and depression. A further analysis showed that self-forgiveness mediated the relationship between divine and victim forgiveness and psychological outcomes. In other words, divine and victim forgiveness contribute to self-forgiveness, which in turn lead to better psychological outcomes.

The purpose of this correlational, cross-sectional design study was to examine the relationships between COVID-19-related stress, quality of life (QOL), and intrinsic religiosity of university students during the pandemic. Data were collected using the Psychological General Well-being Index, Impact of Events Scale-Revised, and Duke University Religiosity Index and analyzed using Pearson’s r, bivariate analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. For the sample of 422 participants, COVID-19-related stress was negatively associated with QOL, while religiosity was positively associated with participants’ QOL. Religiosity, however, did not moderate the relationship between stress and QOL. Institutions of higher education should consider providing additional mental health support and self-care initiatives to improve student stress responses. Understanding the effects of religiosity on student stress responses and QOL would allow faculty and institutions to prioritize holistic care, including spiritual care in conjunction with religiosity.

Despite the conceptual link between love and forgiveness, empirical evidence for the relationship between the two is scarce. Also, controversy exists surrounding the use of a self-evaluated forgiveness tendency as a measure of dispositional forgiveness. One hundred adults filled out an online survey to provide the data for this study. Compassionate love, commitment to forgiveness, and valuing forgiveness were moderately associated with dispositional forgiveness. Compassionate love predicted dispositional forgiveness over and above all other measures. The feasibility of measuring dispositional forgiveness accounting for the occurrences of actual transgressions and the presence of compassionate love among those showing forgivingness are discussed.