Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 兒童與家庭學系碩士班 === 99 === The research was primarily to investigate the effects of forgiveness on marital quality for couples in Taiwan and to understand how the constructs of forgiveness in West are revealed by Taiwanese couples in terms of the marital relationship. Besides, the study also examined the influence of age and religion on forgiveness and marital quality.
The instruments included ‘‘Marital Offence-Specific Forgiveness Scale (MOFS)” and “Marital Quality Scale”. 520 couples were recruited by snowball sampling and 206 couples’ valid questionnaires were returned. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). The results were summarized as follows:
1. The constructs of MOFS were a three-factor structure, including ‘‘revenge–avoidance”, ‘‘affect
resentment” and “benevolence”. Marital Quality Scales obtained a two-factor solution. They were
marital satisfaction and marital stability.
2. There were significant differences in forgiveness and marital quality between husbands and wives.
Wives were significantly higher than husbands on revenge–avoidance, while husbands were
significantly higher than wives on benevolence, marital satisfaction and marital stability.
3. In terms of APIMs, forgiveness was a strong predictor of own marital quality for wives and husbands.
Except for revenge–avoidance having no effects on partner’s marital satisfaction, all other
partner’s effects were significant. Among these significant partner’s effects, the only significant
difference to emerge was for affect resentment in that it was a stronger predictor of partner’s
marital stability for wives than for husbands.
4. Age of husbands and wives presented negative relations on husbands’ marital satisfaction. In
addition, husbands’ age had positive influence on wives’ affect resentment.
5. The more wives participated in religious activities, the less husbands’ affect resentment was. But
husbands’ religious participation had no significant effect on couples’ forgiveness and marital
quality.
Finally, based on the findings, suggestions for further studies and related applications were also provided.
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