Comparison of Fear of Compassion, Experiential Avoidance and Forgiveness in Girl Victims of Sexual Maltreatment and without Sexual Maltreatment in Childhood

The study aimed to compare girls who were victims of childhood sexual maltreatment with girls without a history of childhood sexual maltreatment in terms of fear of compassion, experiential avoidance, and forgiveness. The method of this research was descriptive causal-comparative. The sample consisted of 232 girl students of the Salman Farsi University of Kazerun who were selected in an available sampling and by sending the questionnaire link to the social channels of the students of the university in line with the virtual education condition of the Coronavirus pandemic. In this way, 116 girl students with a history of childhood sexual maltreatment, with an age range of 18 to 40 years and the exclusion criteria of a history of addiction were as a victim group. Together with 116 girl students who had no history of childhood sexual maltreatment and were matched with the first group in terms of age and level of education, they completed the Fear of Compassion Scales (FCS), Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and Inter-Personal Forgiveness Inventory (IFI). Data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of variance in SPSS-26 software. Findings showed that there was a significant difference between victims of sexual maltreatment and the group without a history of it in terms of fear of compassion, experiential avoidance, and forgiveness. Results for psychologists to hold training courses and interventions for reducing fear of compassion, experiential avoidance, and promoting forgiveness in these girls be useful.