Two Good Forgivers? Forgiveness as a Moderator of the Association between Similarity of Financial Values and Relationship Flourishing

Abstract

Despite couples with similar financial values tending to experience higher relationship satisfaction, individuals with dissimilar spending tendencies often marry each other. Research has not yet established strategies for therapists to encourage for newlywed couples with dissimilar financial values. We examined associations between similarity of financial values and relationship flourishing among 1,486 different-sex newlywed couples. In these associations, we tested both husbands’ and wives’ forgiveness as moderators. Only wives’ forgiveness significantly moderated associations between similarity of financial values and husbands’ and wives’ relationship flourishing. Therapists may consider encouraging forgiveness—especially for wives—in different-sex newlywed couples with dissimilar financial values.

Keywords:

• Financial values
• forgiveness
• relationship flourishing
• relationship satisfaction

Acknowledgements

We thank the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University for funds that helped support this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.