Frank Fincham

Objectives: Emerging adult college women are particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges, highlighting the need to identify protective factors. This study examined whether gratitude and self-compassion moderate the relationship between perfectionistic concerns and mental health outcomes (anxiety symptoms, rumination, well-being). Participants: 444 emerging adult college women (M = 19.51 years, SD = 1.13) from a U.S. university. Methods: Participants completed an online survey in 2024 using measures of perfectionism, gratitude, self-compassion, anxiety, rumination, and well-being. Results: Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis, controlling for perfectionistic striving, revealed that self-compassion moderated the relationship between perfectionistic concerns and both anxiety symptoms and rumination. Specifically, self-compassion buffered anxiety symptoms when perfectionistic concerns were high, whereas its association with lower rumination was evident primarily at lower levels of perfectionistic concerns. Conclusions: These findings underscore self-compassion as a valuable resource for supporting mental health in college women. Universities should consider offering self-compassion-based resources and interventions.

Divine forgiveness is central to many religious traditions and is often thought to inform interpersonal forgiveness. However, little is known about how daily experiences of divine forgiveness shape real-time conflict within romantic relationships. Using a 14-day dyadic daily diary design, this study examined whether perceptions of divine forgiveness regarding treatment of one’s partner predict forgiveness, amend-making, and anger in different-gender, cohabiting romantic couples ( N = 82 dyads; 87.8% married; 77.4% White; 83.5% Christian/Catholic). Multilevel models that parse between- and within-person variance in divine forgiveness revealed that on days when individuals reported greater divine forgiveness, they also reported more forgiveness and amend-making toward their partner, suggesting that experiences of divine forgiveness may support same-day relational repair. Between-person effects further revealed that women experiencing higher levels of God’s forgiveness reported making more amends for their behavior, while men higher in divine forgiveness reported being more forgiving; these effects were corroborated by partner reports and extended to reports of these outcomes the following day. Interestingly, divine forgiveness was not associated with self-reported anger but showed mixed effects regarding perceptions of partner anger. Together, findings suggest that divine forgiveness operates both as a dispositional resource and as a dynamic process that supports relationship repair, particularly for minor, daily conflicts.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the interplay between divine forgiveness and religiosity in their association with an indicator of psychological distress, depressive symptoms. Two studies tested whether religiosity moderated the relationship between divine forgiveness and depressive symptoms. Using an online survey, the first study (N = 440) investigated a predominantly female, White, and Christian sample of emerging adults, whereas the second (N = 105) used a community sample of Muslims. Both studies showed that religiosity moderated the association between divine forgiveness and depressive symptoms, in that the relation between divine forgiveness and depressive symptoms was stronger for people more intensely involved in their religion than those showing lower levels of religiosity. The current research replicated past findings showing a relationship between divine forgiveness and depressive symptoms when religiosity is controlled but offers novel findings in showing that these act synergistically in their relation to depressive symptoms. The substantive and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.

This study examines the mediating roles of perceived parental autonomy control and self-efficacy in the association between overparenting and emerging adults’ social media addiction. Emerging adults (ages 18–29) are particularly vulnerable to social media addiction. Theories suggest that overparenting may be a risk factor for social media addiction, but studies examining underlying mechanisms explaining the association are scarce. College students ( N = 240) from a large university in the southeastern U.S. participated in a longitudinal study, completing three surveys over 12 weeks. Path models were used to examine the proposed hypotheses. Results revealed a significant positive association between overparenting and social media addiction, with perceived parental autonomy control and self-efficacy serially mediating this association. These findings support the potential role of parental autonomy control and self-efficacy as mechanisms linking overparenting to social media addiction. The study also underscores the importance of addressing overparenting and promoting self-efficacy in emerging adults through targeted interventions by practitioners, educators, and parents to mitigate the risk of social media addiction.

The COVID-19 pandemic led many individuals to experience moral transgressions, exacerbating feelings of guilt and remorse. This study explored the role of the self-forgiveness of such transgressions in explaining their associations with psychological well-being and family conflict. We hypothesized that (a) higher levels of self-forgiveness would be associated with greater psychological well-being and reduced family conflict, (b) the perceived relevance of moral transgressions would be positively associated with self-forgiveness and indirectly associated with psychological well-being and family conflict through the mediation of self-forgiveness, and (c) the relationships between the variables of interest could vary across age. Adults (N = 277; M age = 30.04) completed anonymous online questionnaires assessing the relevance of transgressions committed, forgiveness and unforgiveness of self, psychological well-being, and family conflict during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Structural equation modeling revealed that transgression relevance was positively associated with both forgiveness and unforgiveness of self, and indirectly related to psychological well-being and family conflict via self-forgiveness. Greater forgiveness of self was related to greater eudaimonic well-being, whereas greater unforgiveness of self was linked to increased family conflict and reduced eudaimonic well-being. The findings also indicated that age moderated the relationship between forgiveness of self and hedonic well-being, with the association weakening as age increased. The results highlight the importance of promoting self-forgiveness to enhance psychological resilience and familial stability, particularly during challenging times.