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The impact of Forgiveness on Marital Satisfaction in relation to marital stability, religiosity and demographic variables Joseph Orathinkal A. Promoter: Prof. Dr. A. Vansteenwegen & Co-promoter: Prof. Dr. R. Burggraeve Summary Forgiveness is a human phenomenon that came into the interest of the psycho-social scientists and theologians worldwide as a consequence of the reflections upon the 'shoah'. In this research we were primarily interested to know more about nature of forgiveness. In order to do so we had to choose one type of human relationships wherein forgiveness seems to play an essential role. This is the case in adult ‘living together relationships’. Forgiveness is also a topic in today’s couple therapy. So we were curious about the function of forgiveness in marriage. We were in particular interested in the effect of forgiveness on marital satisfaction and its role in the stability of marital relationships. Finally, because the literature seems to suggest a strong relation between forgiveness and religiosity we examined also the relation between both. In total there are 8 chapters to this dissertation. Chapter 1 , contains literature review and a general introduction to the topic of forgiveness. However, the actual literature review for the corresponding specific theme is given in the relevant manuscripts in each chapter. The first chapter also includes some of the models of forgiveness found in literature, the theoretical framework, objectives and hypotheses of the current research. Chapter 2 presents the methodology highlighting the participants, instruments, procedure and method of analysis employed in the current study. The subjects of this study were 787 heterosexual married adults from Flanders region in Belgium, 424 first married and 363 remarried; 396 women and 391 men. The instruments employed were Enright forgiveness Inventory (EFI); The Maudsley Marital Questionnaire (MMQ); Glock Religiosity Scale; a researcher generated Forgiveness Motivation and Perception Checklist (FMPC); and Demographic Questionnaire. For the analysis the Statistical tools used were t-test; the Two-way ANOVA; Post Hoc comparison, and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation. Chapter3 contains two independent manuscripts on the psychometric validation of two scales that were employed in the current study, The MMQ and the EFI. Both scales demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. This further validation of the psychometrics of these two scales gives added impetus to put in use these scales for future research in Belgium context. Chapter 4 gives a descriptive analysis of respondents’ perception and motivation of forgiveness. Overall the participants had a positive perception towards forgiveness and the perception has a significant positive correlation (PPF, r = 0.11, NPF, r = -0.12, p < .001) with their actual forgiveness. Chapter 5 has two manuscripts that are closely related. The first one deals with the effect of forgiveness on marital satisfaction and the second, examines the effect of demographic variables on forgiveness. In the overall findings there was no evidence of a significant difference in the forgiveness between first-married and remarried adults except in two subscales, Positive Behaviour (PBEH), t (708) = 1.99, p < .05 and Negative cognition (NCOG), t (708) = 2.23, p < 0.05. Forgiveness of women were found significantly higher than that of men t(729) = 2.76, p < 0.01. Among the demographic variables number of children had significant effect on forgiveness F (3, 702) = 4.90, p < .002. Finally, forgiveness significantly positively correlated with religiosity. Chapter 6 presents the possible association between religiosity and forgiveness, and the effect of demographic variables on religiosity. There was convincing evidence of significant difference between the religiosity of the first-married ( M = 10.84, SD = 4.63) and the remarried adults ( M = 8.27, SD = 3.73), t(785) = 8.63, p = .0001 ( two–tailed ) d = .61. Further, there was substantial evidence of a significantly higher religiosity for women ( M = 10.28, SD = 4.32) than men ( M =9.03, SD = 4.44), t(785) = 3.99, p = .00005 ( one–tailed ) d = .28. We also found that effect of gender was statistically significant on religiosity, F (1, 785) = 15.94, p <.0001, est η2 = 0.020. For the MMQ scales the effect of gender was highly significant only on MMQ-M, F (1, 785) = 12.23 p <.0005, est η2 = 0.015. Chapter 7 deals with religiosity and marital satisfaction and the effect of demographics on marital satisfaction. There was a significant difference between the marital satisfaction of the first married and remarried adults MMQ-M, t(785) = 2.17, p < .05, (two-tailed ) , d = 0.15; MMQ-S, t(785) = 7.39, p < .001, (two-tailed ) , d = 0.54 and MMQ-GL, t(785) = 2.14, p < .05, (two-tailed) d = 0.15. There was convincing evidence of a significant difference between women and men in their marital adjustment (MMQ-M, t(785) = 3.50, p < 0.001, (two-tailed) d = 0.25. The effect of age was statistically significant on MMQ-S.F(4, 785) = 25.50, p < .0001, est η2 = 0.11. Age ( r = .31, p < .001), number of children ( r = .15, p < .001), and length of marriage ( r = .41, p < .001) have a highly significant positive correlation with sexual adjustment (MMQ-S). Chapter 8 mainly presents a discussion in the light of the findings. It also makes directions of future research taking into consideration some of the major strengths and limitations of the present study. II   List of Publications 1) This dissertation comprises of the following papers Orathinkal, J. & Vansteewegen, A. (2007). Do demographics effect marital satisfaction? Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Vol 33 (1), 73-85 . Orathinkal, J., & Vansteewegen, A. (2006). The effect of forgiveness on marital satisfaction in relation to marital Stability. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, Vol.28 (2), 251-260. Orathinkal, J., Stroobants, R., & Vansteenwegen, A. (2006). Further validation of the Maudsley Marital Questionnaire (MMQ). Psychology, Health and Medicine, published online 24th August, 2006. Orathinkal J., & Vansteenwegen, A., Stroobants, R., & Enright, R. (2006). Further Validation of The Dutch Version of The EFI. Community Mental Health Journal, published online 22ndOctober 2006. Orathinkal, J., & Vansteewegen, A. (2006). Religiosity and Marital Satisfaction. Contemporary Family Therapy: an International Journal, Vol.28, (4), 497-504. Orathinkal, J., & Vansteewegen, A. (2006). Religiosity and forgiveness among first-married and remarried adults. Mental Health, Religion and Culture. Published online 9th June 2006. Orathinkal, J., Vansteewegen, A., & Burggraeve, R. (2006). Forgiveness: A perception and motivation study among married adults (Submitted: The American Journal of Family Therapy). Orathinkal, J., Vansteewegen, A. & Burggraeve, R. (2006). Are demographics important for forgiveness? (Submitted: The Family Journal ).   2) Additional publications a) Articles Orathinkal, J., & Vansteenwegen, A. (2004) Towards Developing a Family Therapy for Melanesia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy , Vol.25, 3, 148-154. Orathinkal, J., & Vansteenwegen, A. (2006). Couples’ Conflict: A territorial perspective. Sexual and Relationship Therapy , Vol.21, 1, 27-44. b) Book reviews Orathinkal, J. (2006) If only I had known: Avoiding common mistakes in couple therapy , by Weeks, G. R, Odell M., & Methven, S. (2005). In INTAMS Review . Orathinkal, J. (2007) Handbook of the Clinical treatment of infidelity, by Fred P. Piercy; Katherine M.Hertlein; Joseph L Wetcheler (eds.), (2005), The Haworth Press Inc. New York, 2005 - pages 219. In INTAMS Review. Orathinkal, J. (2007) Close Relationship: Functions, forms and processes , by Patricia Noller and Judith A. Feeney (eds.), (2006), Psychology Press. New York, 2006 - pages 400. In INTAMS Review.