Development of Marital Forgiveness Scale in Turkish Culture: A Validity and Reliability of the Study

Abstract

The capacity to forgive is a crucial aspect of marital relationships, as it enables couples to recover emotionally following a hurtful event caused by their spouse. The present study aimed to develop a marital forgiveness scale for Turkish culture, which is essential in cultural sensitivity. Accordingly, two distinct studies were conducted. The initial study utilizing Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted with a sample of 351 married individuals, comprising 124 males and 227 females. The analysis yielded four dimensions, comprising 23 items, namely avoidance, desire for revenge, conditional forgiveness and unconditional forgiveness. The second study, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, was conducted with a total of 443 married participants, comprising 102 men and 341 women. The results provided support for the structure of the scale. The reliability analysis revealed that Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient value for each dimension was between .82 and .93. The criterion-related validity of the scale was examined using rumination as the criterion variable, with significant correlations observed between the developed scale and the rumination scale. Significant correlations were observed between The Marital Offense Specific Forgiveness Scale, the offense's severity, and the offense's significance with the developed scale, thereby supporting the convergent validity of the scale. The findings indicated that the Marital Forgiveness Scale, which had been developed for this purpose, was a reliable and valid measurement of marital forgiveness.

Keywords

• forgiveness
• married individuals
• scale development
• Turkish culture

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