The Effect of Self-Forgiveness, the Forgiveness of Others, Shame and Guilt on Female Adolescents' Eating Attitude

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of self-forgiveness, the forgiveness of others, shame and guilt on female adolescents’ eating attitude, and the mediating effect of shame on the relationship between self-forgiveness or the forgivenes s of others and eating attitude. For this research, questionnaire s on self-forgiveness, the forgiveness of others, shame, guilt and eating attitude were administered to 700 female adolescents fro m middle and high schools in Seoul, Incheon and Daegu. Among 683 distributed questionnaires, 640 were selected and sta tistically analyzed by frequency analysis, t-test, Pearson's co r-relation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and stepwise m ultiple regression analysis using SPSS Win 12.0. The main find-ings of the study are as follows: Firstly, grades had a signifi cant influence on self-forgiveness, guilt and eating attitude. Religion was not found to have a significant influence on any of the var iables. Secondly, female adolescents' self-forgiveness, the for-giveness of others and shame were found to significantly affect their eating attitude. Lastly, shame was found to have a parti al mediating effect on the relationship between self-forgiveness and eating attitude.