Resumen

MENGHI, María Soledad; RODRIGUEZ, Lucas Marcelo; TORTUL, María Candela  y  MORENO, José Eduardo. Adaptation of Forgiveness Likelihood Scale to argentinian adolescent population. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2017, vol.34, n.2, pp.489-498. ISSN 1668-7027.

Forgiveness has positive implications for the emotional and social development. Several investigations have concluded that there is a strong negative correlation between forgiveness and the expression of anger and depression. It has been empirically shown that forgiveness has positive effects on mental health and psychophysical well -being. Through this capability the negative feelings of revenge and resentment are transformed into more positive feelings such as compassion and generosity, allowing to convert a negative and painful past into a positive one, thus strengthening the experiences through a reflective and peaceful look. In adolescence grievance situations are usually very frequent. Faced with these situations forgiveness is of great importance to restore the bonds between peers or family; essential bonds for the emotional support at this stage. This clearly shows the importance in the profound study of forgiveness as a variable that fosters psychological health in adolescence. This requires having instruments with good psychometric properties that can measure the ability to forgive in the Spanish - speaking population, more precisely the one from Argentina. The objective of this paper is to adapt Rye's Forgiveness Likelihood Scale (2001) to the Argentinian adolescent population. Two studies were conducted for this purpose. The aim of Study 1 was to evaluate the factorial validity of the scale. Study 2 aimed at testing the scale model emerged in Study 1 through a confirmatory factor analysis. The Study 1 sample consisted of 170 adolescents (85 males and 85 females) with a mean age of 15.60 (SD = 1.30). The Study 2 sample consisted of 294 adolescents (131 males and 163 females) with a mean age of 15.60 (SD = 1.35). Both samples were from Paraná City (Argentina). In both studies the samples were obtained in the same way. It was contacted secondary schools authorities to give them information about our research and to get their permission to carry it out. Then, parents' authorization was asked (informed consent). The samples were taken in groups of 20 to30 adolescents approximately. During the administration at least two researchers were present. It was obtained the KMO sampling adequacy Index (.78) and the Bartlett Test of Sphericity (χ²= 317; p = .000), both of them indicate that it is appropriate to conduct the AFE. From the factor analysis the result is the existence of a single factor that explains 32.79% of the variance. To assess the internal consistency of the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale, the Cronbach Alpha was calculated, showing a coefficient of .76 for the ten items of the scale in the sample of 170 adolescents. As for Study 2, the results of confirmatory factor analysis are: χ²(32) = 86.27; p = .000, χ²/gl = 2.69, CFI = .93, GFI = .94, RMR = .059, and RMSEA = .076. These results indicate a good fit of the proposed model. Thus, both studies convey the good adaptation and psychometric properties of the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale to Argentinian adolescent population. One of the limitations of the present research is the lack of convergent and discriminant validity studies. Both studies were conducted with the original version of the scale, obtaining a positive correlation with the Enright Forgiveness Inventory and other forgiveness measures. Further research should include this type of studies.

Palabras clave : Forgiveness; Adolescence; Psychometric properties; Scale; Grievance.

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