Intrapersonal and interpersonal facilitators of forgiveness following spousal infidelity: A stress and coping perspective

Abstract

Objective Forgiveness includes processes that involve a decision to stop bitterness and thoughts of revenge (i.e., decisional forgiveness), which further motivates the forgiver towards the restoration of positive emotions (i.e., emotional forgiveness). Using stress and coping framework, this study investigated intrapersonal and interpersonal facilitators of decisional and emotional forgiveness in a Chinese marital context. Method Participants were 154 respondents who had experienced or were experiencing spousal infidelity. Results Solidarity‐oriented personality and perceived partner's reconciliation motivation facilitated benign attributions and empathy, then facilitated higher levels of decisional forgiveness, which promoted emotional forgiveness. Strength of marital bond before the infidelity directly predicted higher levels of emotional forgiveness. Conclusions Our findings provide evidence for the differentiated decisional and emotional forgiveness processes after spousal infidelity and delineate different coping mechanism that triggers them, thus lending culturally appropriate evidence for clinicians who work with clients facing spousal infidelity.

The Benefits of Forgiveness at Work: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Time-Lagged Relations Between Forgiveness and Work Outcomes

“…A second limitation is the use of the recall method. First, the accuracy of the recall may be doubtful, as this kind of retroactive reporting could easily be colored by selective memory or current mood or recovery stages ( Chi et al, 2019 ). For example, when participants recalled a hurtful incident from the past, they may have recalled events that they perceived as particularly severe, which could have affected the longevity of the effects found in our study (although identical findings were found when including and excluding perceived severity as a control variable – Appendix B ).…”

Gender and age differences in forgivingness in Italian and Polish samples

“…Holding unforgiveness and dwelling on injury escalates stress and might lead to anxiety, anger, avoidance and, consequently, depression ( Worthington and Wade, 1999 ). Forgiveness provides for transformation of negative feelings, thoughts and behaviors to neutral or positive ones, and it reduces stress ( Chi et al., 2019 ; Worthington and Scherer, 2004 ). Empirical research on stress and coping and their correlates, revealed strong relationships with forgiveness ( Crandall et al., 2019 ; Gall and Bilodeau, 2021 ; Ochu et al., 2018 ) which are differentiated by gender, age and culture.…”

Divorce amongst Christian couples in Yoruba land: Challenges and implications

“…Marital infidelity is a relationship transgression that could be sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity or a combination of sexual and emotional infidelity (Chi et al 2019). Some Christian couple divorce because they suspect their husband is seeing another woman or their wife is seeing another man.…”