Passing on the benefits of forgiveness : the mediating role of maternal stress between mothers' forgivingness and children's psychosocial outcomes

Abstract

The present study aimed to connect the research on mothers’ forgiveness, mothers’ negative mood symptoms and well-being, and children’s psychosocial outcomes. It also examined the mediating effect of mothers’ negative mood symptoms and well-being on the relationship between mothers’ forgiveness and children’s psychosocial outcomes. 152 pairs of mother-child dyads participated in the study. It was found that mothers’ dispositional forgiveness, as assessed by the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, was related to children’s externalising syndromes, specifically aggressive behaviours, and social and attention problems on the CBCL. These relationships between maternal forgivingness and children’s psychosocial outcomes were mediated by mothers’ negative mood symptoms, in particular stress, while maternal well-being was not found to be a significant mediator. The relationship between mothers’ forgiveness and children’s psychosocial outcomes, and the mediating role of maternal stress in this relationship, were discussed. Implications for parenting programmes to facilitate children’s psychosocial outcomes, and future directions were also proposed.