Evaluation of the effectiveness of forgiveness program on anger management skills of delinquent adolescents in Tehran

Objective The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the forgiveness program in reducing anger problems and promoting anger management in adolescents residing in Tehran Correctional Center. This study was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and control group. In this study, 30 adolescents with behavioral problems residing in the correctional center were selected by available sampling method. Subjects were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in 16 sessions of 120-minute forgiveness training sessions, while the control group was not trained. The data collection tool in this study was the STAXI-2 Spielberger Anger-Trait Anger Questionnaire and the obtained data were analyzed by univariate covariance method using SPSS software version 23. Findings showed that forgiveness program training has a significant effect on anger management skills of adolescents with behavioral problems (p <0.05). Therefore, teaching this program is associated with positive and effective results on controlling and managing the anger of the experimental group, and paying attention to forgiveness programs in reducing adolescent behavioral problems is necessary and of particular importance.