Forgiveness, Attributions, and Marital Quality in U.S. and Indian Marriages

We investigated, in two studies, whether forgiveness mediates the relationship between responsibility attributions and marital outcomes among American and Indian couples using the actor-partner interdependence mediation model. In American couples (n = 96), husband forgiveness mediated the link between husband attributions and wife closeness in Study 1. The same model was tested with Indian couples (n = 101) and husband forgiveness mediated the link between wife attributions and both husband and wife marital quality in Study 2. In some cases, forgiveness mediates the association between attributions and marital quality. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.