Anger toward God and well-being in Ukrainian war refugees : the serial mediating influence of faith maturity and decisional forgiveness

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Experiencing war arouses feelings of injustice, which in turn can activate angry feelings towards God. The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between anger towards God, faith maturity, interpersonal decisional forgiveness, psychological well-being and spiritual well-being among war refugees from Ukraine who arrived in Poland and Germany. Data from paper-and-pencil surveys were collected from 243 religious people aged 18–68 years, 82% of whom were women. Structural equation modelling (SEM) showed that anger towards God is a negative predictor of faith maturity, forgiveness and well-being (including a psychological and spiritual component as a second-order variable). In addition, positive relationships were observed between faith maturity, forgiveness and well-being. Finally, faith maturity and forgiveness serially (and forgiveness also as a simple mediator) mediated the relationship of anger towards God and well-being. The results help to explain why people who feel anger towards God are still able to experience well-being, suggesting that faith maturity may inhibit angry feelings towards God through more frequent decisions to forgive abusers.