To Forgive or Not to Forgive: The Influence of Attachment Style on Post-transgression Responses and the Mediating Role of Empathy

Abstract

Past literature has indicated that attachment styles can be reliable predictors of post-transgression responses. Findings have suggested that people with greater attachment security are likely to be more forgiving and have fewer engagements with more unforgiving responses such as rumination and grudge holdings. On the other hand, greater attachment insecurity was reported to have greater tendencies in engaging with more unforgiving responses, which leads to difficulties in forgiving the transgressor.

The present research aimed to evaluate the influence of attachment dimensions, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance, on post-transgression responses in parent and child relationships. The post-transgression responses included forgiveness, benevolence, rumination, avoidance, and revenge-seeking. Empathy was considered to have a mediating role in the relationships between attachment dimensions, and post-transgression responses.

Participants were recruited online to complete a questionnaire where they were requested to reflect on their relationship with a parent, and an incident where they were deeply hurt by the parent.

Regression analysis indicated that greater attachment avoidance was positively associated with rumination, avoidance, and revenge-seeking, and negatively associated with benevolence. No relationship was found between forgiveness. Greater attachment anxiety predicted greater benevolence and lower avoidance. The personal distress subscale of empathy was found to be a mediator between attachment anxiety and benevolence, and rumination for participants who focused on their mothers.