Empathy Mediates the Relationship Between Motivations After Transgression and Forgiveness

Lin Ma; Yingjie Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01466

Empathy Mediates the Relationship Between Motivations After Transgression and Forgiveness

Front Psychol. 2020 Jul 8:11:1466. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01466. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Lin Ma^{1

2}, Yingjie Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China.
² School of Teacher Education, Anqing Normal University, Anqing, China.

Abstract

Previous studies found the associations between motivations after transgression and forgiveness in adults. However, less is known about the relationship between transgression-related motivations and forgiveness among adolescents and the potential mediating role of empathy. These questions were investigated among 445 Chinese adolescents using the Tendency to Forgive Scale, the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The results found a negative relationship between avoidance and revenge motivation and forgiveness tendency and a positive association between benevolent motivation and forgiveness tendency. In addition, the study also revealed a partial mediating role of empathy regarding the effect of the transgression-related motivations on forgiveness tendency. These findings suggested that empathy plays a vital role in the relationship between transgression-related motivations and forgiveness among adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents; avoidance; empathy; forgiveness; revenge.