Forgiveness and interpersonal skills in same-sexed friendships

Although forgiveness is a largely interpersonal process, little research has examined the relationship between forgiveness and the interpersonal skills that may be important in forgiving another for an offence. The current study addressed this issue by investigating the relationship between forgiveness and interpersonal skills in same-sexed friendships among a community sample of 210 people (mean age 38.32 years). Each participant completed the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (Thompson et al., 2005), which assesses forgiveness of self, others, and situations; and the same-sex friend version of the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenberg, & Reis, 1988) which assesses skills in initiation, negative assertion, self-disclosure, emotional support, and conflict management. Positive correlations were found between all five interpersonal skills and the three types of forgiveness, with only the relationship between forgiveness of others and negative assertion failing to reach significance. Separate hierarchical regressions were conducted to predict each type of forgiveness, with age and gender entered at Step 1 and the interpersonal skills variables entered at Step 2. Age, initiation skills, and conflict management skills each contributed uniquely to the prediction of all three types of forgiveness. Discussion centres around the relationship between forgiveness and interpersonal skills

The contribution of X-linked coding variation to severe developmental disorders

Abstract: Over 130 X-linked genes have been robustly associated with developmental disorders, and X-linked causes have been hypothesised to underlie the higher developmental disorder rates in males. Here, we evaluate the burden of X-linked coding variation in 11,044 developmental disorder patients, and find a similar rate of X-linked causes in males and females (6.0% and 6.9%, respectively), indicating that such variants do not account for the 1.4-fold male bias. We develop an improved strategy to detect X-linked developmental disorders and identify 23 significant genes, all of which were previously known, consistent with our inference that the vast majority of the X-linked burden is in known developmental disorder-associated genes. Importantly, we estimate that, in male probands, only 13% of inherited rare missense variants in known developmental disorder-associated genes are likely to be pathogenic. Our results demonstrate that statistical analysis of large datasets can refine our understanding of modes of inheritance for individual X-linked disorders

Parental bonding and religiosity as predictors of dispositional forgiveness

As part of a larger study, eighty-nine Christian adults from the general community were surveyed to determine the extent to which dispositional forgiveness could be predicted from religiosity and parental bonding variables (i.e., mother and father care and overprotection). Participants ranged in age from 18 to 66 years (M = 40.21 years). Care and overprotection were measured by the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979), dispositional forgiveness was measured by the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (Thompson et al., 2005), and religiosity was assessed via an item that tapped the extent to which participants‘ religious beliefs were important to them. Separate hierarchical regressions were used to predict forgiveness of self, others, and situations. Age and gender were entered at Step 1, religiosity at Step 2, and the four parental bonding variables at Step 3. Age and mother care were the strongest predictors of forgiveness of self, such that older participants who perceived their mothers as caring were more forgiving. The full model accounted for 22.1% of the variance in forgiveness of self. However,religiosity was important in predicting forgiveness of others and situations. For forgiveness of others, religiosity was the only variable that made a unique significant contribution to the prediction, with the full model explaining 28.8% of the variance. For forgiveness of situations, age and religiosity were the only variables that made unique significant contributions, with the full model explaining 24.9% of the variance.Mother care may have been more important than religiosity in predicting forgiveness of self due to the importance of mother care in the development of a healthy self-esteem. Religiosity may have beenimportant in predicting forgiveness of others and situations due to specific Christian beliefs regarding those aspects of forgiveness. These results have implications for counselling, particularly when dealing with different types of forgiveness. Due to the relatively small sample size, further replications are required in order to clarify and extend the current finding