Mediating role of forgiveness in the relationship between marital conflict and marital satisfaction

In this study, the mediating role of forgiveness in the relationship between marital conflict frequency and marital satisfaction of married individuals was examined. The sample of the study consisted of 204 (64.2 %) female, 113 (35.5 %) male, 1 (0.3 %) who didn't specify gender, 318 married individuals in total. The Marital Conflict Scale, the Marriage Life Scale, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, and the demographic information form were used to gather data. SPSS 21 Statistic Package Program was used for data analyses in the study. As a result of the descriptive analyses, marriage conflict frequency showed a significant difference according to gender whereas there was no significant gender differences in terms of tendency to forgiveness and marital satisfaction. Significant relationships were detected among the variables of marital conflict frequency, marital satisfaction, and forgiveness. The frequency of marital conflict between forgiveness with negative and significant; the frequency of marital conflict between marital satisfaction with negative and significant; the frequency of marital satisfaction between forgiveness is a positive and significant relationship was observed. The PROCESS macro was used to test the role of mediation. Results indicated that forgiveness of self and forgiveness of situation had a partial negative indirect role in explaining the relationship between marital conflict frequency and marital satisfaction. Results of the study were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions were presented for further research and and practitioners.