Forgiveness and home environment as aspects of interpersonal interaction

Objectives. Investigate the individual’s ability to forgive concerning the characteristics of a friendly home environment. Background. The article continues the series of works devoted to the role of the home environment in the interpersonal interaction. Everyday communication involves the distribution of different resources; this process requires personal qualities that ensure a tolerant attitude to violations of justice. Study design. At the first stage of the study, psychometric examination of the Russian-language Heartland Forgiveness Scale was carried out; at the second stage, a correlation study established the relationship between the qualities of a friendly home and the ability of the inhabitants to forgive. Participants. Five hundred ninety students (M=18,7, SD=1,1, 477 females, and 113 males). Measurements. Multi-scale questionnaires: Home Environment Functionality, Home Environment Relevance, and Home Attachment. Results. The Russian version of Heartland Forgiveness Scale includes two sub-scales Readiness to forgive and Lack of ruminations and has good reliability. The results of the main study were gender-sensitive. In females, the characteristics of a friendly home are positively related to the ability to forgive, while in males, they are negatively related. The highest number of connections is formed by functionality of home; in males — also by the home attachment. Conclusions. Against males, home implements amplifying function, and concerning girls — is ennobling; to develop the ability to forgive the young men need separation from home. The contribution of the home environment to the development of the ability to forgive is determined by the context of human development: both forgiveness and non-forgiveness are adaptive phenomena that are important for solving social problems, the content of which is set by the respondents’ gender.