Translational Family Science and Forgiveness: A Healthy Symbiotic Relationship?

Abstract

This article explores how translational family science might be instantiated by considering research on forgiveness in close relationships. Relevant historical context is provided to traverse ground in multiple disciplines in an attempt to avoid repetition of past errors. The translational science continuum (T1 to T4) is considered and specific examples of each type of translation are outlined. A set of explicitly stated implications are offered in the course of the analysis. These implications speak to lessons that can be learned for translational family science from the examination of forgiveness in a relationship context as well as mandates for forgiveness research that become apparent when research on this construct is viewed through the lens of translational family science. The potential for a healthy symbiotic relationship between translational family science and research on forgiveness in relationships is explored.

Exploring personal and relational motivations and processes of forgiveness in religious families

“…These routine religious and relational rituals facilitated the development of forgivingness as well as the ability to forgive specific events. Further, our study adds to the limited research that has used both adolescent and parental participants to study parent–child forgiveness processes (Fincham, 2017).…”

“…Further, of the qualitative studies examining the relationship between state forgiveness and religion, little research has focused on familial forgiveness of smaller or mundane interpersonal offenses-the primary focus being larger offenses such as the murder of a loved one (Parker et al, 2004) or traumatic experiences surrounding being a victim of war (Nyarko & Punamäki, 2017). Scholars have also recently pointed to the need to study the connection between spirituality and forgiveness (Worthington et al, 2013), as well as parent-child forgiveness processes with both adolescent and parental participants (Fincham, 2017). Lastly, more work needs to be done on religious and ethnic minorities.…”