Comparison of Forgiveness and Religious Commitment in Couples on the on the Brink of Divorce and Normal Couples

The rising rate of divorce in Iranian society is disconcerting. This study aimed at comparing religious commitment and forgiveness in couples on the rink of divorce and normal couples. The research method is descriptive and causal-comparative. To select the group of couples on the brink of divorce, firstly, the researcher referred to counseling units of the courts and law offices of various cities of the Guilan province. The cases of the couples who were qualified to enter the study were reviewed and of these cases 173 were selected based on availability. Then, 143 normal couples referring to the courts and offices of lawyers which the cause of their resort is nothing but the completions of the divorce case were selected through purposive sampling. They responded to Glock and Stark's Religious Commitment questionnaire, and Ray and et al Forgiveness scale. Obtained data were analyzed by Pearson Chi-squares, independent t-test, multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that the mean of forgiveness and religious Commitment in couples on the brink of divorce and normal couples significantly different, that is, couples on the brink of divorce have less level of forgiveness than normal couples and in terms of faithfulness and ritual religious commitment, they scored less scores than normal couples. The remarkable difference between the two groups has important marital therapy implications for implementation of forgiveness-oriented intervention and also promotion of religious beliefs and ritual among couples in order to maintain and strengthen the marriage contract.