Negative Interpersonal Interactions and Dating Abuse Perpetration: The Mediating Role of Dispositional Forgivingness

Abstract

Theory and research suggest that an individual's negative interactions with his or her parents or romantic partner are associated with the perpetration of dating abuse. Research is beginning to explore the role of forgivingness within abusive romantic relationships, and these preliminary findings suggest that dispositional forgivingness might mediate the relations between negative interpersonal interactions and dating abuse. The current study assessed negative interactions with one's parents and one's romantic partner, the frequency of dating abuse perpetration, and dispositional forgivingness of others and oneself among a sample of emerging adults in college ( n = 421). Dispositional forgivingness of others was negatively associated with the perpetration of emotional/verbal dating abuse and threatening behaviors, and it mediated relations between negative interpersonal interactions and dating abuse perpetration. Our findings suggest that the tendency to forgive others may explain why some individuals who experience negative interpersonal interactions with parents or romantic partners do not escalate to perpetration of abuse within their romantic relationships. Implications for future research and application are discussed.

The Association Between Parent and Child ACEs is Buffered by Forgiveness of Others and Self-Forgiveness

“…This extends the literature beyond showing that interpersonal and sexual violence are merely correlated with reduced forgiveness as a direct effect (Davidson et al, 2013 , 2015 ). Even further, this extends the literature beyond showing that forgiveness can act as a mediator of the associations between experiencing ACEs and both victimization and perpetration of adult violence (Garthe et al, 2018 ; Rivera & Fincham, 2015 ). Indeed, the present findings support the stress-and-coping theories of forgiveness of others (Strelan, 2020 ; Worthington, 2006 ) and self-forgiveness (Toussaint et al, 2017 ; Worthington, 2013 ) showing that both forgiveness of others and self-forgiveness may act as potential coping mechanisms that interrupt or short-circuit the transmission of ACEs intergenerationally.…”

“…For example, intimate partner violence (Davidson et al, 2015 ) in the past six months and sexual violence (Davidson et al, 2013 ) in the past 12 months has been associated with less forgiveness and more motivations toward revenge. In other work, forgiveness has served as a partial mediator of the relationship of interpersonal and family violence with victimization and perpetration of violence (Garthe et al, 2018 ; Rivera & Fincham, 2015 ). That is, experiencing family or interpersonal violence reduces forgiveness of others and reduced levels of forgiveness of others are associated with increased levels of victimization and perpetration of violence.…”

Verbal Abuse Related to Self-Esteem Damage and Unjust Blame Harms Mental Health and Social Interaction in College Population

“…These three DAG networks explored the differential cascades 19,22,113 of perceived verbal abuse escalation 69,87–93 according to the source of parents (Fig. 1A), peers (Fig.…”

“…To explore the detailed aftereffect of verbal abuse on the exposed person’s social interaction pattern 67–69 , this study focused on non-confrontational coping for social interaction including the anxiety-fear-avoidance for social situation 56–59 (measured using the LSAS) and preference for non-face-to-face social interaction behind the smartphone overuse 60–62 (measured using the SAS).…”

“…To explore the differential patterns of perceived verbal abuse escalation 69,87–93 according to the source of parents, peers, or supervisors, using the hill-climbing algorithm provided by the R package bnlearn 22,24 , we derived three Bayesian networks (each comprised of the 15 items from the VAQ-parents, -peers, or -supervisors, respectively) embodied in DAGs. First, using the bootstrapping function, we extracted 10,000 samples (with replacement) and estimated an optimal network structure for a target goodness-of-fit score (e.g., the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) provided by bnlearn program for each edge comprising given network; larger absolute BIC value indicate the higher importance of specific edge for the integrity of network in explaining the data) 22 by randomly adding and removing edges connecting different VAQ items and reversing edge directionality 22 .…”