The relationship between Social Goal Setting and School Adjustment: The Mediating Roles of Rumination, Empathy and Forgiveness

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of mediators including rumination, empathy and forgiveness in the relationship between social goals and school adjustment. The research sample consisted of 404 first-year high school boys who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling and answered to social achievement goals (Ryan & Shim, 2008), Rumination about an Interpersonal Offense (Wade, Vogel & Goldman,2008),Empathy(Bar-Ann,1997), Trait Forgivingness (Berry, Worthington, O'Connor, Parrott &Wade,2005) and Adjustment Inventory For High School (Sinha and Singh, 1993). In this study, descriptive method and correlational research design of path analysis type were used. The results showed that the assumed pattern of Intermediate rumination, empathy and forgiveness related to social achievement goals, including social development, social demonstration approach, and social demonstration avoid to emotional, social, educational adjustment has good fitness. In addition, all correlational pathways (except for Social development and emotional adjustment, social demonstration approach and academic adjustment, social demonstration avoid and socio-academic adjustment) were statistically significant. The results of the present study show that the goals of social progress through predicting the increase of empathy and forgiveness and reduction of rumination have an important role in the occurrence of emotional, social and educational adjustment of students.