Forgiveness education interventions instruct children and adolescents in understanding forgiveness and its role in healthy relationships. In this meta‐analytic review, 20 studies involving 1472 youth (51% female; Mage = 11.66) from 10 countries (studies: 40% North American, 25% East Asian, 20% Middle Eastern, 15% European) were retrieved to determine forgiveness education interventions’ effects on youth outcomes. Hedges’ g and confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess treatment effects. Findings suggest that forgiveness education interventions have a significant positive effect on forgiveness (g = 0.54, 95% CI [0.36, 0.73]) and anger (g = 0.29, 95% CI [0.11, 0.47]). Results lend support to the idea that children and adolescents who experience hurt from the unjust actions of others may benefit from learning about the process of forgiveness.

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The moral virtues have had prominence in social scientific research ever since Piaget’s (1932) and Kohlberg’s (1969) pioneering work on the cognitive developmental stages of justice reasoning. A less explored moral virtue is the ancient idea of agape, or love that is in service to others which includes effort and even pain on the part of the one expressing the virtue. In this work, we attempt a precise definition of agape using Aristotelian philosophical views of virtue ethics and his principles of analyzing constructs for their essences and their specific differences with related but distinct constructs. From this Aristotelian philosophical framework, we then critique existing social scientific measures of love and of agape in particular. We then provide guidelines for the development of construct-valid measures of agape that are philosophically coherent. Possible research questions to expand the scientific study of agape are presented as a way forward with this important construct that could bring psychological health to individuals and peace and unity to families and communities.

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