THE ROLE OF FORGIVENESS IN MARITAL CONTENTMENT AMONG MARRIED COUPLES IN CITAM ASSEMBLIES, NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA
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Date
2018-10
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PAC University
Abstract
Problems occur in nearly all marriages at one time or another. Even individuals in healthy marriages have suffered from some form of relationship offenses by their spouses. The ability to forgive one’s partner may be one of the most important factors in maintaining healthy marital relationships. The study examined the role of trait and episodic forgiveness in marital contentment among married men and women selected in two Christ Is the Answer Ministries assemblies in Nairobi, namely Woodley and Valley Road. Objectives of the study were to examine the role of trait forgiveness on marital contentment, to find out whether episodic forgiveness is related to marital contentment and to investigate how commitment, empathy and communication moderate the relationship between forgiveness and marital contentment. Mixed methods design was used in the study. The researcher used the emotional focused therapy because forgiveness is conceptualized as an emotional juxtaposition of positive emotions against the negative emotions of unforgiveness. Forgiveness could thus be used as an emotion-focused coping strategy to reduce a stressful reaction to a transgression. Data for the study was gathered using a questionnaire and focus group discussion guide and analyzed using SPSS and Nvivo software. The sample size was 135 individuals. Focused group discussion involved six couples randomly selected. The study revealed a strong positive correlation between trait forgiveness and marital contentment (r=.515, p<.01, N=107), with a relatively high composite score being
obtained for trait forgiveness on a 5-point scale (M=3.52, SD=0.53) and a similar score being obtained for marital contentment (M=3.53, SD=0.66). There was a weak positive and statistically significant relationship between episodic forgiveness and marital contentment (r=.267, p<.01). Trait forgiveness emerged as the stronger antecedent to marital contentment, correlating relatively strongly with both marital contentment and episodic forgiveness. This calls for its magnification in both counselling practice and marriage and family therapy sessions as a sustainable antidote to marital contentment under relational stress, especially among Christian couples. Counselling practitioners should therefore emphasize the principle of forgiveness as the key to healing emotional wounds caused by offenses that manifest in the course of a marriage.