Forgiveness and its determinants depending on the interpersonal context of hurt
Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Academic Press
Faculty
Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
School
School of Exercise and Health Sciences / Child Health Promotion Research Centre
RAS ID
17417
Abstract
Children and adolescents encounter different hurtful experiences in school settings. How these events are processed (e.g., whether they think that the transgressor was hostile) is likely to depend on the relationship with the transgressor. In this study, we examined how adolescents (58 girls and 35 boys, mean age = 14.03. years, SD= 0.60) dealt with the hurt caused by someone they liked or disliked. Our findings show that the hurt caused by a disliked transgressor is likely to lead to more negative cognitive (e.g., hostile attributions), affective (e.g., feelings of anger), and motivational (e.g., avoidance/revenge) outcomes than the hurt caused by a liked peer. In addition, we found that associations between cognitive processes and avoidance/revenge were mediated by feelings of anger, but only when the transgression occurred in the context of disliking. These results highlight the importance of studying how adolescents process hurtful experiences in different relational contexts.
DOI
10.1016/j.jecp.2012.05.009
Comments
Peets, K., Hodges, E., & Salmivalli, C. (2013). Forgiveness and its determinants depending on the interpersonal context of hurt. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114(1), 131-145. Available here