Measuring interpersonal forgiveness in late adolescence and middle adulthood

The construct of interpersonal forgiveness is operationalized and tested with 197 college students and 197 of their same-gender parents in the Midwestern United States. The Enright Forgiveness Inventory (EFI) showed strong internal consistency reliability. The EFI correlates significantly and negatively with anxiety particularly when a person is experiencing deep hurt in a developmentally relevant area. Age differences also were observed. Particularly when the hurt concerns a developmentally relevant area, college students are less forgiving and have more anxiety than their same-gender parents. The EFI thus appears to have sound psychometric properties.