Intrapersonal and interpersonal facilitators of forgiveness following spousal infidelity: A stress and coping perspective. Issue 10 (26th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chi, Peilian; Tang, Yixin; Worthington, Everett L.; Chan, Cecilia L. W.; Lam, Debbie O. B.; Lin, Xiuyun
• Is Part Of: Journal of clinical psychology. Volume 75:Issue 10(2019)
• Page Start: 1896
• Page End: 1915
• Publication Date: 2019-07-26
• Subjects: Chinese -- decisional forgiveness -- emotional forgiveness -- marital relationship -- spousal infidelity -- stress and coping; Psychology -- Periodicals; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1002/jclp.22825
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9762

Abstract

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.