Fathers' Forgiveness as a Moderator Between Perceived Unfair Treatment by a Family of Origin Member and Anger With own Children

Abstract

This study examined how forgiveness mediates and moderates between fathers' perceived unfair treatment (PUT) from a family of origin member and anger with the child (AWC). Eighty married fathers who have at least one child between the ages of 2 and 7 years individually completed the Opening Questionnaire, the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, the Family of Origin Hurt Scale, the Anger With the Child Scale, and the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory-II. The moderation analysis revealed that for 20 fathers who had been hurt by their own fathers and who indicated their son as between 2 and 7 years, forgiveness significantly moderated the relationship between PUT and AWC (p = .034). These results suggest an intergenerational gender effect of forgiveness between PUT and AWC.