Assessment of dispositional forgiveness in adolescence: a contribution to the Italian validation of the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale

The current study investigated the factor structure, factorial invariance, and reliability of the Italian version of the Forgiveness Likelihood Scale (FLS) among 604 adolescents in Italy (217 boys and 387 girls) with a mean age of 16.6 years (SD = 1.3). The FLS is a 10-item Likert-type scale created to assess the predisposition to forgive across situations. The sample was randomly split into two subsamples to investigate the FLS structure. Results indicated a unidimensional structure, and factorial invariance was found for the factor solution across gender. Scale reliability was adequate, revealing appropriate internal consistency (α = .75). Evidence for convergent validity was also found. The results suggested that the Italian version of the FLS can be reliably used to measure forgiveness among Italian adolescents. Practice implications and future research directions are discussed.