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Measuring Spousal Forgiveness: German Version of the Marital Offence‐Specific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS‐German)
Author(s) -
Haversath Julia,
Kliem Sören,
Kröger Christoph
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/fare.12290
Subject(s) - forgiveness , resentment , german , psychology , convergent validity , confirmatory factor analysis , scale (ratio) , social psychology , clinical psychology , structural equation modeling , internal consistency , psychometrics , statistics , physics , mathematics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , politics , political science , law , history
Objective To validate the German version of the Marital Offence—Specific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS‐German). Background Forgiveness has positive effects on several relational variables. The MOFS (Paleari et al., 2009) is a useful instrument for measuring forgiveness in romantic relationships. Method Using a representative sample of individuals in the German population ( N = 1,396), we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and analyzed internal consistency as well as associations with other measures. Then, using a sample of couples ( N = 348), we analyzed dyadic data with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) for convergent validity and subgroup differences. Results The two‐factor structure was replicated in the CFA. The dimensions Benevolence and Resentment/Avoidance showed acceptable internal consistency values, and their associations to other self‐report measures supported convergent validity. Couples in counseling reported less Benevolence and more Resentment/Avoidance than couples not in counseling, and men reported more Benevolence and less Resentment/Avoidance than women. Conclusions Findings support the MOFS‐German's ability to assess spousal forgiveness, including differences between men and women as well as between couples in counseling and couples not in counseling. Implications The MOFS‐German may now be used in the standardized assessment of marital forgiveness by clinicians and researchers.