Abstract

Background & aim: Psychological consequences of war, regardless of disruption in social functioning of the injured, bring about difficulties for the families of the injured and the larger society.  Promotion of subjective well-being is one of the objectives of modern-day psychology. The present study aimed to study the effectiveness of forgiveness-based group intervention in the subjective well-being of the wives of war veterans.

Methods: The population of the present study included all the wives of war veterans in Noorabad Mamasani, Iran. In this interventional study, 40 participants selected through convenience sampling from the above-mentioned population were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The instruments used in the study were Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) The research design was pre-experimental involving a pre-test and a post-test. Forgiveness-based group intervention was performed on the experimental group for 10 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes once a week. The control group received no instruction.  At the end of the treatment, a post-test was administered to both groups. ANCOVA was used for data analysis.

Results: The findings revealed that forgiveness-based group intervention promotes the subjective well-being (increase in positive emotions and satisfaction with one’s life and decrease in negative emotions) in the intervention group, compared with the control group. In the pre-test administered to the experimental group, mean and standard deviation of positive emotions, life satisfaction, and negative emotions were 34.70 and 3.26, 15.80 and 3.20, 24.85 and 5.09, respectively. In the post-test given to the same group, mean and standard deviation of the above-mentioned variables were 41.60 and 2.52, 19.15 and 2.41, 16.70 and 2.59, respectively.

Conclusion: The findings of the study suggest that it is possible to make use of forgiveness-based intervention to promote subjective well-being. Therefore, it could be said that forgiveness-based group intervention is effective in the subjective well-being of the wives of war veterans.

 Subjective well-being, Forgiveness, Wives of war veterans