Authors: Judit Bognar, Robin Krzysiek, Patrick Poyner-Del Vento, and Rebecca Cobb
Date and Location: November 2010, San Fransisco, CA
Although research generally suggests that forgiveness benefits relationships and individuals, there may be situations in which forgiveness could be harmful. In the current study, we investigated whether the amount of everyday negative behaviours in a romantic relationship (e.g., teasing, making fun of the partner, being inconsiderate, and showing anger) was an important factor in the link between forgiveness and depression symptoms. We found that when men and women engaged in more forgiveness in the context of high-conflict relationships, they were more likely experience higher levels of depressive symptoms six months later.
Authors: Patrick Poyner-Del Vento and Rebecca Cobb
Date and Location: November 2008; Orlando, FL
Summary: Forgiveness in close relationships can enhance intimacy and satisfaction, but the behaviors that require forgiveness, such as psychological aggression, have a harmful effect on relationship quality. We hypothesized that when newlywed spouses engage in more psychological aggression while partners engage in less forgiveness, spouses and partners will experience greater declines in marital satisfaction over one year. Participants were 200 couples from the SFU Transition to Marriage Study who completed online questionnaires. Data from three months prior to the wedding date (Time 1) and one year later (Time 2) were used for analyses. Results indicated that psychological aggression from either spouse did not predict changes in marital satisfaction. However, there was an interaction between husbands’ aggression and wives’ forgiveness—husbands’ greater use of aggressive tactics during conflict and their wives’ lack of forgiveness led to greater declines in husbands’ marital satisfaction. The same pattern was not present for wives. These results suggest that when wives are less forgiving and husbands resort to more aggression, declines in husbands’ marital satisfaction are greatest. This might occur because husbands who engage in more harmful aggression may cause more severe hurt feelings, making it harder for wives to forgive. Consequently, husbands may derive less satisfaction from their relationship over time. This study highlights the dyadic nature of conflict and forgiveness, and suggests that a focus on both spouses' behaviors may yield a more complete understanding of changes in marital satisfaction.
Authors: Kim Watt and Rebecca Cobb
Date and Location: November 2007; Philadelphia, PA
Summary: We examined whether forgiveness mediated the association between attachment security and marital satisfaction. Attachment security is reflected by comfort with intimacy and expectations that others will be responsive and available in times of need. Attachment security, forgiveness, and relationship satisfaction are all associated, and we proposed that a mechanism that underlies the relation between attachment security and relationship satisfaction is forgiveness. Participants were 200 engaged couples from the SFU Transition to Marriage Study who completed online questionnaires 3 months prior to their wedding and 1.5 years later. Attachment security was associated with forgiveness of partner’s relationship transgressions and with relationship satisfaction. Concurrently at the beginning of the study, forgiveness did not mediate the link between attachment security and marital satisfaction. However, forgiveness did mediate the link between attachment security and changes in marital satisfaction over the first year and half of marriage. In other words, forgiveness may be a mechanism of the link between greater attachment security and increases in satisfaction over the early years of marriage.
Authors: Patrick Poyner-Del Vento and Rebecca Cobb
Date and Location: May 2007; Vancouver, BC
Summary: The degree to which one is securely attached in close relationships has been studied extensively, and experiences of one's family of origin is predictive of attachment security in adulthood. More recently, attachment security has also been shown to be predictive of forgiveness in marriage. We examined whether attachment security mediates between family environment in childhood and forgiveness in marriage. We asked couples from the Transition to Marriage Study about their experiences in childhood, how much they are currently securely attached, and to what extent they forgive their spouses following a transgression. Our results indicated that spouses who grew up in higher quality family environments were generally more securely attached and more forgiving in their relationships. In addition, these spouses' attachment security partially mediated between their childhood experiences and their forgiveness behaviors in marriage, suggesting that attachment security may play a role in the extent to which spouses forgive their partners in transgressions.