Forgiveness intervention with postabortion men.

Abstract

An intervention designed to foster forgiveness was implemented with postabortion men. Participants were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control (wait list) condition, which received treatment after a 12-week waiting period. Following treatment, the participants demonstrated a significant gain in forgiveness and significant reductions in anxiety, anger, and grief as compared with controls. Similar significant findings were evident among control participants after they participated in the treatment. Maintenance of psychological benefits among the 1st set of participants was demonstrated at a 3-month follow-up. Can men who identify themselves as having been hurt by abortion benefit from a structured psychological intervention designed to facilitate forgiveness? Other studies have used forgiveness interventions with elderly women (Hebl & Enright, 1993), parentally love-deprived college students (Al-Mabuk, Enright, & Cardis, 1995), and female incest survivors (Preedman & Enright, 1996). In these studies, forgiveness was associated with psychological benefits such as decreased anxiety and depression and increased hope and self-esteem. The interventions used in each of these studies were based on a process model of interpersonal forgiveness developed by Enright and the Human Development Study Group (1996). The model consists of 20 psychological variables and incorporates the affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of forgiveness. The essence of the model is this: After presenting a definition of forgiveness to the participants, we help them to express anger and examine how that anger may be influencing such issues as one's energy level and one's excessive focus on the past abortion experience. Second, the person chooses whether or not to consider forgiveness as an option to alleviating the anger. If so, forgiving is distinguished from such related concepts as condoning or excusing, forgetting, and reconciling (one may forgive, but not reconcile). Third, the person is asked to commit to forgiving, defined at this early point as refraining from revengeseeking. Next, the participant engages in the cognitive exercise of refraining, viewing the offending person as vulnerable and human. Then, empathy and compassion toward the offender, as affective counterparts to refraining, are given time to develop. Finally, the participant is encouraged to bear the pain caused by the event (Bergin, 1988), so as not to displace the anger onto others or to continue revenge-seeking. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention based on the model and designed to promote emotional healing among postabortion men. Research suggests that abortion may be a traumatic and stressful experience for some men, including anxi

The mental health and parenting practices of recently separated parents

“…As discussed, forgiveness has shown to have an important influence on mental health in the current studies and in previous research (Cano & O"Leary, 2000;Coyle, & Enright, 1997;Rye et al, 2004). Furthermore, conflict with the ex-partner has also been found to relate to poorer mental health post-separation.…”

“…In addition to this, forgiveness after a distressing event has been found to relate to improved mental health, such as reduced anxiety and grief (Coyle & Enright, 1997), reduced anger (Coyle & Enright, 1997;Rye, Folck, Heim, Olszewski & Traina, 2004), reduced depression (Rye et al, 2004), and increased wellbeing (Rye et al, 2004). Due to the findings of this research, level of forgiveness of partner will be measured in these studies to assess the association between forgiveness (including the level of feeling wronged or humiliated by expartner) and mental health.…”

“…- Coyle and Enright (1997) Males only -As forgiveness increased there were significant reductions in anxiety, anger, and grief.…”

“…Previous research has also found that a higher level of forgiveness has an important positive influence on mental health (Cano & O"Leary, 2000;Coyle, & Enright, 1997;Rye et al, 2004). Therefore, in future, those who work with separated parents could focus on forgiveness and reducing resentment towards the ex-partner in order to not only facilitate the development of a better mental health trajectory post-separation, but a better relationship between the ex-partners.…”

Reconsidering a “Woman’s Issue:” Psychotherapy and One Man’s Postabortion Experiences

“…For men, the unequal power distribution concerning abortion may intensify negative emotions and a sense of loss postabortion (6). It is also possible that men may experience self-blame or guilt during the preabortion and postabortion periods.…”