The Scale of Forgiveness on Interpersonal Relationships: A Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool that can measure forgiveness in adults. 683 people participated in the research in the 2018-2019 academic year continuing education in five universities in Turkey. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 28. In order to determine the construct validity of the scale, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. As a result of exploratory factor analysis, a three-dimensional structure consisting of 14 items emerged. As a result of the literature review, the scale was named “The Scale of Forgiveness in Interpersonal Relationships” (SFIR) and its sub-dimensions were named, “Forgiveness to Status”, “Orientation to the Problem” and “Focusing on Positive”. In the analyses, it was concluded that the items explained 52.05% of the total variance. The three-factor structure of the scale was confirmed by a firstorder confirmatory factor analysis. As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the model fit indices were in perfect fit (X2 / sd = 1.57, CFI = .98, GFI = .96, AGFI = .94, IFI = .98, RMR = .041,RMSEA = 042). Similar scale validity was found to be .51 with Toronto Empathy Scale and .54 for Communication Skills Scale. For the reliability of the scale, Cronbach's alpha internality and test-retest
method were used. The Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient is .85, for the whole scale, and the test-retest reliability is .82. As a result, it can be said that SFIR is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to measure forgiveness in interpersonal relationships in adults.