Table 4 Random effects meta-analyses for the proportion endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others by sociodemographic category.

From: Sociodemographic variation in dispositional forgivingness: a cross-national analysis with 22 countries

Variable

Proportion (95% CI)

SE

Prediction interval

τ

I2

Global

p-value

Lower

Upper

Age group

      

< 0.001

 18–24 years

0.73 (0.67, 0.77)

0.02

0.38

0.90

0.11

92.7

 

 25–29 years

0.75 (0.69, 0.80)

0.03

0.36

0.92

0.12

93.7

 

 30–39 years

0.75 (0.70, 0.80)

0.03

0.35

0.91

0.12

93.7

 

 40–49 years

0.77 (0.71, 0.81)

0.02

0.46

0.93

0.11

93.7

 

 50–59 years

0.78 (0.72, 0.82)

0.03

0.45

0.95

0.12

94.4

 

 60–69 years

0.79 (0.75, 0.82)

0.02

0.56

0.91

0.08

90.2

 

 70–79 years

0.81 (0.75, 0.86)

0.03

0.62

0.98

0.12

95.8

 

 80 years or older

0.87 (0.77, 0.94)

0.04

0.63

1.00

0.20

99.0

 

Gender

      

< 0.001

 Male

0.76 (0.71, 0.80)

0.02

0.46

0.91

0.10

92.2

 

 Female

0.77 (0.72, 0.81)

0.02

0.42

0.91

0.10

92.0

 

 Other

0.74 (0.33, 0.95)

0.15

0.00

1.00

0.69

99.8

 

Marital status

      

< 0.001

 Married

0.78 (0.74, 0.82)

0.02

0.47

0.91

0.09

91.6

 

 Separated

0.73 (0.67, 0.79)

0.03

0.20

0.87

0.14

94.8

 

 Divorced

0.75 (0.70, 0.79)

0.02

0.33

0.86

0.11

92.2

 

 Widowed

0.81 (0.77, 0.85)

0.02

0.49

0.94

0.09

92.3

 

 Domestic partner

0.73 (0.69, 0.77)

0.02

0.52

0.84

0.08

86.7

 

 Single, never married

0.73 (0.67, 0.78)

0.03

0.39

0.91

0.12

93.7

 

Employment status

      

< 0.001

 Employed for an employer

0.76 (0.71, 0.81)

0.02

0.39

0.94

0.12

93.7

 

 Self-employed

0.76 (0.72, 0.81)

0.02

0.43

0.92

0.11

92.8

 

 Retired

0.80 (0.75, 0.83)

0.02

0.52

0.90

0.10

92.5

 

 Student

0.74 (0.69, 0.79)

0.02

0.39

0.91

0.11

92.9

 

 Homemaker

0.76 (0.72, 0.80)

0.02

0.48

0.88

0.09

90.7

 

 Unemployed and looking for a job

0.72 (0.66, 0.77)

0.03

0.34

0.89

0.13

94.3

 

 None of these/other

0.76 (0.70, 0.80)

0.02

0.49

0.93

0.12

93.6

 

Years of education

      

< 0.001

 Up to 8 years

0.76 (0.71, 0.81)

0.02

0.50

0.91

0.11

92.9

 

 9–15 years

0.76 (0.70, 0.80)

0.02

0.38

0.91

0.11

92.9

 

 16 + years

0.79 (0.74, 0.83)

0.02

0.48

0.96

0.11

93.4

 

Frequency of religious service attendance

      

< 0.001

 > 1/week

0.87 (0.83, 0.90)

0.02

0.48

0.94

0.07

91.9

 

 1/week

0.82 (0.78, 0.86)

0.02

0.47

0.92

0.09

92.0

 

 1–3/month

0.77 (0.73, 0.81)

0.02

0.40

0.90

0.10

91.7

 

 A few times a year

0.75 (0.71, 0.78)

0.02

0.42

0.88

0.09

89.5

 

 Never

0.69 (0.65, 0.74)

0.02

0.41

0.87

0.10

89.9

 

Immigration status

      

< 0.001

 Born in this country

0.76 (0.72, 0.80)

0.02

0.45

0.91

0.10

91.8

 

 Born in another country

0.78 (0.71, 0.84)

0.03

0.32

0.97

0.15

96.6

 
  1. Note. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error, τ = tau, I2 = I-squared statistic.
  2. Proportion: Estimated overall proportion in the sociodemographic category endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others.
  3. 95% CI of proportion: The 95% CI for the estimated overall proportion in the sociodemographic category endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others.
  4. SE: Standard error analogue (confidence interval width divided by four), which is the standard error for the estimated overall proportion in the sociodemographic category endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others.
  5. Prediction interval: Variation in country-specific proportions in the sociodemographic category endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others.
  6. Lower: Lower limit of the approximately 95% prediction interval.
  7. Upper: Upper limit of the approximately 95% prediction interval.
  8. τ: The standard deviation of the distribution of the proportions endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others across countries, an indicator of cross-national heterogeneity, is back transformed from the logit scale used to pool proportions and can occasionally exceed the maximum standard deviation of a binary variable (0.50). Additional information on heterogeneity is available in the forest plots for each estimate (see Figures S1-S34).
  9. I2: An estimate of the variability in proportions endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others due to heterogeneity across countries vs. sampling variability. Given that the sample sizes for each country are large, the I2 is high.
  10. Global p-value: A test of the null hypothesis that there are no differences in the proportions endorsing ‘often/always’ forgiving others between the categories for the sociodemographic characteristic in any of the 22 countries.
  11. All p-values passed the Bonferroni-corrected threshold of p = .007 (p = .05/7).
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