A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Brief Self-Directed Secular REACH Forgiveness Intervention With Indonesian Christians: Does Religiousness Matter?

The present study examined the effectiveness of a brief self-directed secular REACH Forgiveness workbook in improving state forgiveness, state hope, mental health, and flourishing among Indonesian Christians. A subset of data (all self-identified Christians; N = 203; M_age = 21.17 ± 3.28 years, female = 75.86%, 78.33% college students) from a large, randomized waitlist controlled trial in Indonesia was used. The participants were assigned randomly to an immediate treatment (IT) or delayed treatment condition and were assessed three times. Evidence of posttreatment improvements was found in state forgiveness and to a lesser extent state hope, flourishing, and mental health in both conditions, regardless of Christian denomination, frequency of religious service attendance, or frequency of engagement in private religious/spiritual activities. For those in the IT condition, increases in all outcomes were maintained at 2-week follow-up; for those in the delayed treatment condition, gains while they completed the workbook were comparable to those in the IT condition. The secular workbook intervention was efficacious for Christians in dealing with interpersonal transgression.