Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol 32(3), Aug 2026, 231-243; doi:10.1037/pac0000834
With growing interest in the study of forgiveness, researchers have identified various factors that influence forgiveness, including some that are particularly relevant to contexts of sociopolitical conflict. The research presented here aimed to develop a self-report measure of factors influencing forgiveness, adapted to victims of the armed conflict in Colombia, based on the Factors Related to Forgiveness Inventory developed by Blatt and Wertheim (2015). For this purpose, we carried out two processes: (1) a rational-analytic process involving translating the original items into Spanish, contextualization into Colombia (including adding further items) and evaluation by expert judges and victims and (2) an empirical process, involving exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of those items. The study included 564 people who had been victims of sociopolitical violence during the Colombian armed conflict, 79.8% identifying as women and 20.2% as men, aged between 14 and 88 years (M = 45.9, SD = 15.1). The inventory demonstrated acceptable confirmatory factor analyses model fit and adequate internal consistency. Based on the results, we propose the Inventory of Factors Influencing Forgiveness, a Spanish language self-report inventory, with 26 items measuring six factors: Mistaken Beliefs About Forgiveness, Malicious Intent of the Offender, Repetition of the Offense, Positive Actions of Offender, Social Influence to Forgive, and Influence of Religious Beliefs, Peace, and Reconciliation. These factors and the reasoning underlying them are then explained. Overall, the tool broadens understandings of forgiveness and can help professionals potentially develop psychosocial and psychotherapeutic intervention strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)