Unravelling the Link Between Self-control and Relationship Well-being: A Mediational Model of Gratitude and Forgiveness

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Self-control; Gratitude; Relationship Satisfaction

Abstract

Healthy relationships are fundamental to individual, familial, and community flourishing. While research on self-control, gratitude, and forgiveness in romantic relationships is expanding, their interrelationships remain underexplored. This study suggested that gratitude and forgiveness mediate the relationship between self-control and relationship satisfaction among Hong Kong adults. A total of 113 adults currently engaged in romantic relationships participated in the study. The findings indicated that gratitude fully mediated the relationships between self-control and relationship satisfaction. In addition, the combined influence of gratitude and forgiveness also demonstrated a full sequential mediation: self-control enhanced gratitude, which in turn fostered forgiveness, ultimately promoting greater relationship satisfaction. Conversely, forgiveness alone did not mediate the relationship between self-control and relationship satisfaction. The current findings help to fill the research gap and enrich the theoretical understanding of the processes underlying the association between self-control and relationship satisfaction. Gratitude is likely to play an important role in facilitating forgiveness and relationship satisfaction. The results imply that couple therapy interventions may be substantially enhanced by integrating techniques that promote self-control and foster gratitude. Future research should incorporate longitudinal and experimental designs to more conclusively determine the causal pathways linking self-control, gratitude, forgiveness, and relationship satisfaction.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Lydia Tin Hang Wong
AU  - Joe Tsz Kin Ngai
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Unravelling the Link Between Self-control and Relationship Well-being: A Mediational Model of Gratitude and Forgiveness
BT  - Proceedings of the Positive Psychology 2.0 International Conference 2025 (PP 2.0 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 60
EP  - 78
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_6
ID  - Wong2025
ER  -