Religiosity and forgiveness among first-married and remarried adults

The current study examined the relationship between religiosity and forgiveness among first-married and remarried adults. Seven hundred and eighty-seven married adults from the Flanders region in Belgium completed the Enright Forgiveness Inventory and a four-item Religiosity Scale measuring forgiveness and religiosity, respectively. The results indicated that religiosity positively correlated (p = 0.0001, r = 0.15) with forgiveness. There was a significant difference between the religiosity of the first-married and the remarried adults (p = 0.0001 (two-tailed) d = 0.61). In an analysis by gender, the women showed a statistically significantly higher religiosity than did men (p = 0.00005 (one-tailed) d = 0.28). Among the demographic variables, age (r = 0.26), number of children (r = 0.35), and number of years in marriage (r = 0.34) showed a statistically significant (p = 0.0001) positive correlation with religiosity. The basic purpose of this study was to inform clinicians of the value of forgiveness and religiosity in therapeutic interventions.