Perceptions of Divine Forgiveness, Religious Comfort, and Depression in Psychiatric Inpatients: A Mixed Methods Study

Understanding how forgiveness relates to mental health outcomes may improve clinical care. This study assessed 248 adult psychiatric inpatients, testing associations of forgiveness, religious comfort (RC), religious strain (RS), and changes in depressive symptomatology from admission to discharge. Experiencing divine forgiveness and self-forgiveness was both directly associated with RC and inversely associated with RS. Using structural equation modeling, the path from divine forgiveness to depression through RC was significant, β = − .106, SE = .046, z = − 2.290, p = .022, bootstrapped 95% CI = − .196 to − .015. Qualitative findings illustrated patients’ changed perspectives on divine forgiveness during hospitalization.