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Forgiveness in marriage: The role of relationship quality, attributions, and empathy
Author(s) -
Fincham Frank D.,
Paleari F. Georgia,
Regalia Camillo
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6811.00002
Subject(s) - forgiveness , empathy , attribution , psychology , social psychology , structural equation modeling , quality (philosophy) , variance (accounting) , developmental psychology , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , epistemology , accounting , business
Italian husbands ( n = 79) and wives ( n = 92) from long‐term marriages provided data on the role of marital quality, affective reactions, and attributions for hypothetical partner transgressions in promoting forgiveness. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as hypothesized, positive marital quality was predictive of more benign attributions that, in turn, facilitated forgiveness both directly and indirectly via affective reactions and emotional empathy. Unexpectedly, marital quality did not account for unique variance in forgiveness. Compared to husbands, wives’ responsibility attributions were more predictive of forgiveness, whereas empathy was a better predictor of forgiveness in husbands than in wives. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the burgeoning therapeutic literature on forgiveness.