Longitudinal associations of dispositional forgivingness with multidimensional well-being: a two-wave outcome-wide analysis in the Global Flourishing Study

In this preregistered longitudinal study with nationally representative samples from 23 countries in the Global Flourishing Study (N = 207,919), we examine associations between dispositional forgivingness and multidimensional well-being outcomes approximately one year later. Following the analytic template for outcome-wide designs, we conducted a series of country-specific weighted multivariate regression analyses where each Wave 2 outcome was regressed on Wave 1 forgivingness (controlling for Wave 1 sociodemographic and retrospectively recalled childhood variables). Random effects meta-analyses were used to pool country-specific estimates of association for the 56 main outcomes covering psychological, social, physical, volitional, and material dimensions of well-being. We found some evidence of association between forgivingness and higher well-being for both composite well-being indicators and numerous specific indicators across different domains of functioning (observed associations were mostly very small in magnitude). Associations were generally stronger and more consistent for some domains (e.g., psychological well-being) compared to others (e.g., physical health & health behavior). Meta-analyzed estimates of association generally attenuated after using a more conservative analytic approach that additionally adjusted for principal components extracted from the Wave 1 outcomes treated as covariates. Country-specific results showed some cross-national variation. Our findings contribute novel population-level evidence on the potential benefits of forgivingness for different aspects of well-being.