The effectiveness of forgiveness therapy for wives of alcoholics

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of forgiveness therapy for wives of alcoholics in South Korea suffering from emotional abuse by their spouses.

Methods: Non-randomized quasi-experimental research was conducted with 2-hour weekly forgiveness therapy sessions for 12 weeks, and pre-test, post-test, and a 12-week follow-up test. A total number of 28 subjects were divided into two groups: 15 in the experimental group and 13 in the control group. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, χ² test, and repeated measure ANOVA, using SPSS 20.0.

Results: The experimental group showed a significantly higher score on the forgiveness scale than did the control group (t = 0.312, p < .010) and the 12-week follow-up test (F = 4.43, p = .039). In the subcategories of the forgiveness scale, affect and cognition scores were significantly increased but there was no significant change on the behavior score.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that forgiveness therapy may be an effective intervention program to improve forgiveness for the emotionally abused wives of alcoholics.