Abstract
Do partners' levels of self-control and forgiveness change over the course of marriage? Based on the idea that marriage may function as a training ground for these vital relationship abilities, we hypothesized that people increase their levels of self-control and forgiveness over time and that these developments take place simultaneously. We tested these predictions among 199 newlywed couples in the first 4 years of marriage, using a dyadic latent growth curves analysis. Confirming our hypotheses, results showed significant increases in self-control and forgiveness as well as a positive concurrent correlation between these variables. However, the developments of self-control and forgiveness were unrelated. So, while people become more self-controlled and forgiving over the course of a marriage, these developments do not coincide.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 109-130 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Journal of Social and Personal Relationships |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2017.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/ or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Grant 452-05-322 awarded to Catrin Finkenauer. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Grant 452-05-322 awarded to Catrin Finkenauer.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 452-05-322 |
Keywords
- Forgiveness
- marriage
- romantic relationships
- self-control