Marital Forgiveness Among Turkish Married Individuals: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This study aims to understand forgiveness among individuals in their marriages in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews with 13 married individuals were conducted. How people experienced and coped with an offense in their marriage was investigated. Thematic analysis revealed nine core themes: unforgiven offenses in marriage, forgiven offenses in marriage, barriers to forgiveness, facilitators of forgiveness, coping with offenses, motives behind forgiveness, the definition of forgiveness, impacts of offenses, and reflections of forgiveness. Individuals coped with offenses in three ways: avoidance, retaliation, and granting forgiveness. Apology, repairing attempts, and empathy were facilitators of forgiveness, whereas the severity of offenses was observed as barriers to forgiveness. The motives behind forgiveness were continuous marriage, good qualities of spouses, and personal well-being. The findings can contribute to a better understanding of forgiveness in marriage.

Keywords:

• forgiveness
• marriage
• thematic analysis
• relational offenses

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data used in the research are not available due to ethical issues.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the study and authorship of the manuscript.