The predictive role of forgiveness and the level of repetitive thinking on mental health and marital adjustment in married individuals

Abstract

Objective: A review of the literature reveals that while forgiveness, the importance attached to negative experiences to be forgiven, and repetitive thinking are associated with marital adjustment, the role of variables regarding close relationships has so far received little attention from researchers. As the marital relationship, one of the most important interpersonal relations, correlates to mental health, this study aims to examine jointly the predictive power of relevant variables for psychological symptoms and marital adjustment and additionally to investigate possible gender differences in terms of these research variables. Method: The sample of this study consisted of 157 married individuals (86 women and 71 men). Marital Adjustment Test (MAT), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Forgiving Personality Scale (FP), Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire (RTQ), Importance Attached to the Incident to be Forgiven Scale (IAIFF), and a Personal Information Form developed by the researchers were administered to married persons. Correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relations between variables; subsequently, hierarchical regression analysis was applied to determine the power of the variables to predict psychological symptoms and marital adjustment. One-way MANOVA was used to reveal gender differences with regard to the research variables. Results: Regression analysis showed that gender, repetitive thinking, forgiving personality, and the importance given to negative experiences expected to be forgiven predict psychological symptoms. In addition, gender, forgiving personality, and repetitive thinking have a significant predictive value for marital adjustment. Finally, gender differences were found to be significant in marital adjustment, psychological symptoms, repetitive thinking, and the importance attached to negative experiences to be forgiven. It was determined that marital adjustment was lower in women while their psychological symptoms were higher. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that repetitive thinking and forgiveness are important predictor variables for both mental health and marital adjustment. It also suggests that marital therapists should consider relevant variables in psychotherapy when working with married couples.