Between- and within-person effects of divine forgiveness: A dyadic, longitudinal examination in romantic relationship conflicts

Divine forgiveness is central to many religious traditions and is often thought to inform interpersonal forgiveness. However, little is known about how daily experiences of divine forgiveness shape real-time conflict within romantic relationships. Using a 14-day dyadic daily diary design, this study examined whether perceptions of divine forgiveness regarding treatment of one’s partner predict forgiveness, amend-making, and anger in different-gender, cohabiting romantic couples ( N = 82 dyads; 87.8% married; 77.4% White; 83.5% Christian/Catholic). Multilevel models that parse between- and within-person variance in divine forgiveness revealed that on days when individuals reported greater divine forgiveness, they also reported more forgiveness and amend-making toward their partner, suggesting that experiences of divine forgiveness may support same-day relational repair. Between-person effects further revealed that women experiencing higher levels of God’s forgiveness reported making more amends for their behavior, while men higher in divine forgiveness reported being more forgiving; these effects were corroborated by partner reports and extended to reports of these outcomes the following day. Interestingly, divine forgiveness was not associated with self-reported anger but showed mixed effects regarding perceptions of partner anger. Together, findings suggest that divine forgiveness operates both as a dispositional resource and as a dynamic process that supports relationship repair, particularly for minor, daily conflicts.