Frank D Fincham

Florida State University | FSU ·  Family Institute

Because a majority of the world’s population is religious and believes in some higher power, it is important to understand what may facilitate or hinder religious psychological processes that give rise to well-being. The current work therefore threads together behavioral ecological, attachment, and forgiveness theoretical perspectives to assess can...

Objective: Guided by the theory of emerging adulthood and social cognitive theory, we investigated whether overparenting was associated with romantic relationship quality among emerging adults through relationship efficacy and dependent on parent–child relationship quality. Background: Establishing healthy and lasting intimate relationships is one...

Objective This study aims to investigate full‐time working adults and the extent to which generative concern and gender moderate the association between positive and negative work‐to‐family spillover on life satisfaction and positive and negative affect. Background Families are an important and viable support for many people and their well‐being....

Divine forgiveness (forgiveness by a Supreme Being or Higher Power) is central to several religions and likely a motivating force for many believers. The present research investigates antecedents and correlates of the perception of divine forgiveness. An initial cross-sectional study (N = 255) examined whether God image was related to reports of di...

This research conceptualized and offered preliminary evidence on the psychometric properties of the 10-item Divine Connectedness Scale—a measure that assesses individuals’ perceptions of feeling supported by (divine guidance) and working with (divine collaboration) God or a Supreme Being. Results of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory fact...

College life involves navigating different educational and career development options, as well as social relationships. The pressure to “fit in” can be stressful and involve the fear of missing out (FOMO) on fun, social events. The college environment is especially challenging for those who experience social anxiety – the fear of being rejected and...

Seeking divine forgiveness (forgiveness by a Supreme Being or Higher Power) is important because the perception of such forgiveness is associated with psychological well-being This paper is the first to examine a process model of divine forgiveness in which the decision to pursue such forgiveness initiates the process of seeking it. Two studies inv...

Introduction Although a majority of the world’s population believes in a Higher Power and subscribes to a religion in which divine forgiveness is emphasized, little work has been done to understand individual differences associated with seeking divine forgiveness. Methods Building on work that suggests trait self-control facilitates well-being, th...

This article summarizes and critiques existing literature on the factors that might influence romantic relationships and attitudes among Asian emerging adults (18-29 years old). Forty-one studies were identified. Findings were categorized into two groups based on outcome variables: romantic relationship qualities (e.g., satisfaction; N = 22) and at...

Emerging adults frequently report feelings of loneliness and social anxiety owing to changes in their social environment, instabilities, and transitions. One of the risk factors that could contribute to emerging adults’ social well-being is overparenting. We examined the association between overparenting, loneliness, and social anxiety among emergi...

Witnessing interparental conflict in childhood predicts psychological dating violence victimization (PDVV) in adulthood. As found in previous studies, PDVV and hopelessness are associated with depression. However, the associations among these four variables have not been explored in detail. The present study, therefore, examined the association bet...

Being grateful to one's partner matters for a diverse range of interpersonal and individual well-being outcomes. However, there is little investigation on the psychological benefits of expressing gratitude to partners during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Using a short-term longitudinal design, this study of undergraduate students (Mage...

Attachment is important for pro-relationship behavior. Past research has suggested that anxious and avoidant attachment makes people less likely to forgive, but dyadic effects of secure and preoccupied attachment have not been considered. We tested actor and partner effects of attachment on forgiveness (increased benevolence; decreased resentment)...

Covenant marriage is a legally distinct marriage license available in Arizona, Louisiana, and Arkansas in the United States. This study revisited one of the largest longitudinal dyadic studies on covenant versus standard newlywed couples. Using this dataset of 677 different‐sex couples, we explored whether being in a covenant marriage could predict...

Systematic research on divine forgiveness is notably absent from the literature on forgiveness. Two studies therefore explored the relationship between divine forgiveness and well-being, and what might account for any association found. Study 1 (N = 574) documented an inverse relationship between divine forgiveness and anxiety and showed that this...

Genuine happiness can be described as an unlimited, everlasting inner joy and peace undisturbed by external circumstances. The current study proposes a Genuine Happiness Scale (GHS) with four items. The sample consisted of 678 US young adults, with 432 completing the online surveys twice, approximately six weeks apart. Exploratory and confirmatory...

The world’s longstanding religions emphasize divine forgiveness yet systematic research on God’s forgiveness is notably absent from the scientific literature. Because religious beliefs are a core motivating feature in many peoples’ lives, divine forgiveness requires attention if we are to attain a more complete understanding of human behavior. The...

Although divine forgiveness has given rise to a small but growing body of empirical research, no attempt has been made to describe the processes involved when a person seeks divine forgiveness. The present paper therefore sets out to identify the salient elements or “moving parts” in the human quest for divine forgiveness. Starting from the entry p...

Parenting a child with learning disabilities (LDs) can not only be a fulfilling experience, but also a challenging one which can increase parenting stress as well as impair parenting self-efficacy, parental psychological well-being and interactions with the child. Informed by the parenting three-term causal model and the parenting stress model, the...

This study examined the direct and indirect effects of communication patterns and forgiveness on physical and psychological morbidity, among young adults involved in a romantic relationship. Participants were 298 students, currently involved in a heterosexual romantic relationship, from a large university in the United States, who completed the Ten...

The Caring for Bliss Scale (CBS) is a new measure that assesses an individuals' capacity to cultivate inner joy and happiness. Developed in the United States, its generalizability remains unknown in non-Western contexts. This research explored the scale's cross-national invariance among college students in the Philippines (n = 546) and the United S...

Dating violence is manifested in different forms between romantic partners. Psychological violence, the most common form of dating violence, is more likely to affect women, eliciting feelings such as shame and guilt. The robust relationship of sexism to psychological dating violence victimization (PDVV) is well-documented but whether PDVV serves as...

Objectives: Although gratitude relates to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) well-being outcomes in the United States, more evidence is needed to understand how this psychological strength reciprocally relates to mental health during this pandemic. This study examines the association of gratitude with stress, anxiety, and depression among undergr...

Although associated with adverse mental health and occupational outcomes, the etiology of internet addiction and displays of risqué social media content are two understudied issues. Research has suggested that overparenting could be associated with these internet-related behavioral issues either directly or indirectly through the development of emo...

Ample evidence suggests that mindfulness and self-compassion are related to well-being, but little is known about the role of a new construct, caring for bliss, in these relationships. This study examined the potential moderating role of caring for bliss on the effect of mindfulness and self-compassion on well-being in college-attending emerging ad...

Open-heart surgery (OHS) is common in late life and is expected to improve functioning despite aging of OHS patients. Few studies have explored the influence of both psychosocial strength factors, metal health, and pre- and peri-OHS medical factors, including cardiac indices, on post-OHS functioning. This study explores the role of character streng...

Objectives: While there are good reasons to assume that mindfulness protects against burnout in students, nothing is known about the role of caring for bliss. This study examined whether caring for bliss moderated the relationship between mindfulness at baseline and aspects of burnout approximately 12 weeks later. Participants: Students (n = 92) fr...

Trait mindfulness is associated with sexual satisfaction, but their temporal relation is unexplored. Using a short-term longitudinal design, the present study not only examines their temporal relation but also extends extant research by also investigating relationship mindfulness and potential mechanisms that might account for any temporal relation...

We tested preregistered hypotheses (a) examining the structure of supernatural beliefs and perceived experiences and (b) predicting supernatural engagement from the Big Five and cognitive styles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of self-report data in the U.S. undergraduates (Study 1: n = 1,401; Study 2: n = 1,939) showed that bel...

The occurrence of the novel coronavirus necessitates a better understanding of how romantic partners use social technology to cope with health stressors. This exploratory study, therefore, examined whether COVID-related health concerns regarding oneself or one’s romantic partner before/during quarantine predict, or are predicted by, emerging adults...

How do people decide whether a supernatural entity (God, the devil, ghosts/spirits, fate/destiny, karma, or luck) has intervened in their lives? Their decisions may depend partly on how well the event fits with beliefs about the entity’s supernatural operating rules, such as the entity’s power, scope of communication, and intent. We examined these...

This study examined how the triarchic model of grit (i.e., perseverance of effort, consistency of interests, and adaptability to situations) is related to cultivation of genuine happiness, loneliness, and COVID-19 anxiety in American ( n = 643) and Filipino ( n = 546) undergraduate students. It also explored whether grit had indirect effects on suc...

This study examined how the triarchic model of grit (i.e., perseverance of effort, consistency of interests, and adaptability to situations) is related to cultivation of genuine happiness, loneliness, and COVID-19 anxiety in American (n = 643) and Filipino (n = 546) undergraduate students. It also explored whether grit had indirect effects on such...

Asian-Americans (AAs) constitute the fastest growing minority group in the USA. AAs share a common emphasis on collective cultural strengths, especially family values. Using the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) data, this study investigated the roles of family cohesiveness, along with other cultural strength factors and negative fam...

Although divine forgiveness has given rise to a small but growing body of empirical research, no attempt has been made to describe the processes involved when a person seeks divine forgiveness. The present article, therefore, sets out to identify the salient elements or “moving parts” in the human quest for divine forgiveness. Starting from the ent...

Objectives The current study developed a psychometrically optimized measure of mindful attentive relationship awareness.Methods Items of existing scales (e.g., the Relationship Awareness Scale; RAS; the Relationship Mindfulness Measure; RMM) were combined with items written by the authors to create a pool of 54 items given to online samples of 2109...

OBJECTIVES: The current study developed a psychometrically optimized measure of mindful attentive relationship awareness. METHODS: Items of existing scales (e.g., the Relationship Awareness Scale; RAS; the Relationship Mindfulness Measure; RMM) were combined with items written by the authors to create a pool of 54 items given to online samples of 2...

Do people forgive others’ transgressions because they have experienced God’s forgiveness or do they engage in earthly forgiveness in the service of seeking God’s forgiveness? Absent systematic research on divine forgiveness, two longitudinal studies were conducted to investigate the potential direction of effects between interpersonal and divine fo...

Different types of forgiveness tend to be studied independently of each other. This study therefore investigated the interplay among divine forgiveness, self-forgiveness, and interpersonal forgiveness. Using two samples of 348 and 449 participants, we examined the relations among the three types of forgiveness and showed that they were positively c...

The increasing role that new technologies play in intimate relationships has led to the emergence of a new form of couple violence, cyber dating abuse, especially among adolescents and young adults. Although this phenomenon has received increased attention, no research has investigated predictors of cyber dating abuse taking into account the interd...

Objectives: This study examines perceived and anticipated stigma towards infected people, threat and impact appraisals of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as distressing personal experiences related to the virus in order to determine the extent to which they directly and indirectly predict hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Investigated experiences i...

Although there is a robust positive association between cyber dating abuse victimization and depression, the direction of effects between them is unknown. Thus, we conducted two studies to investigate their temporal relationship. Study 1 (n = 198) examined whether cyber dating abuse victimization predicted depressive symptoms 6 weeks later, after c...

This study examined daily partner-focused petitionary prayer (PFPP) on relationship communication and quality as well as novel indices of cardiovascular functioning in a sample of 90 adults. PFPP was compared to waitlist and meditation conditions over a 4-week period. Aortic hemodynamics via pulse wave analysis were assessed before and after the in...

This study examined two potential mechanisms, competence and self-efficacy, that might account for the relationship between helicopter parenting and anxiety symptoms among female university students, and whether any mediating effects differed by parent gender. Structural equation modelling of data collected from 473 undergraduate students showed th...

Anxiously attached individuals worry about the psychological availability of their partners. Their preoccupation with unmet attachment related needs is likely accompanied by ruminative thoughts, feelings of jealousy, and dating abuse perpetration. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of gender differences in perpetrati...

Background: Friends with benefits encounters are a relatively new pattern of relating among emerging adults where risky sexual behavior may occur. Aim: To understand whether pornography consumption is associated with riskier behaviors during friends with benefits encounters. Methods: Cross-sectional study of 2 samples of emerging adults who ha...

The purpose of this study was to (a) explore the prevalence of, and gender differences in, self-reported physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetration in dating relationships (i.e., not married or engaged), (b) evaluate the factorial validity of the Power Perceptions and Power Satisfaction Questionnaire in dating relationships, and (c)...

The relationship between pornography use and violence has been extensively researched. Numerous studies suggest that the violent content depicted in pornography may be a risk factor for relationship violence. The current study, therefore, seeks to examine whether pornography use prospectively predicts a particular form of relationship violence—inti...

People who are anxiously attached, distrustful and jealous of their partners, and suspect infidelity are more likely to use psychological dating violence. Is this also true for cyber dating abuse perpetration (CDAP)? This study investigated the prevalence of and gender differences in self-reported CDAP and whether trust, anticipated partner infidel...

The world’s longstanding religions emphasize divine forgiveness, yet systematic research on God’s forgiveness is notably absent from the scientific literature. Because religious beliefs are a core-motivating feature in many peoples’ lives, divine forgiveness requires attention if we are to attain a more complete understanding of human behavior. The...

In this longitudinal study ( N = 98), we examined whether drinking for suppression reasons moderated the relation between depressive symptoms and hooking up for self-affirmation reasons and negative hookup consequences. No moderation was found for hooking up for self-affirmation reasons, but the effect for negative hookup consequences approached si...

Cheating—a general term for extradyadic romantic or sexual behavior that violates expectations in a committed romantic relationship—is common and leads to a number of poor outcomes. Religion has historically influenced conceptions of romantic relationships, but societal attitudes about religion are in flux as many seek to retain spirituality even a...

Challenging perceptions of violence is crucial to prevent dating violence (DV), because such perceptions intervene in the organization and interpretation of violent events. However, these perceptions have received limited attention. This likely reflects the lack of a psychometric tool to do so. The current study had two purposes: to develop a measu...

Study Objective Psychological risk factors that lead to impaired work performance, negatively impacting mental and physical health, have emerged as a concern across clinical settings. Although depression and anxiety are linked to poor physician mental health, physician burnout characterized by work related stress due to chronic exhaustion from clin...

Although burnout is a risk factor for various negative mental and physical outcomes, its prevention is hampered by the stigma associated with burnout. The current research therefore reports on the initial development and validation of a novel measure of perceived burnout stigma. Study 1 (n = 318) describes the construction and initial evaluation of...

The current research reports both latent profile (person-oriented) and item response theory (IRT) analyses of the School Burnout Inventory (SBI) in United States undergraduate samples. Study 1 (n = 1,007) comprises a latent profile analysis (LPA) that identified four mutually exclusive subgroups based on patterns of school burnout responses. Covari...

Objectives This article describes the concept of caring for bliss and provides initial data on the development and validation of the Caring for Bliss Scale (CBS). Caring for bliss is defined as the cultivation of inner joy or genuine happiness based on a peaceful state of mind and a compassionate heart. It entails practices designed to generate fee...

Bullying of medical residents is associated with numerous negative psychological and physiological outcomes. As bullying within this demographic grows, there is increased interest in identifying novel protective factors. Accordingly, the current research investigated whether interpersonal forgiveness buffers the relationship between two forms of wo...

Objectives We examined the mediating role of self-control in the relation between helicopter parenting and college student school burnout and whether the relation between helicopter parenting and college student school burnout varied by parental gender. Specifically, we hypothesized that (1) there would be a positive association between helicopter...

The relationship between school burnout and sleep is largely unexplored, especially in emerging adults. Two studies investigate this relationship, including associations with academic achievement. Study 1 (N = 350) documents robust relationships between school burnout and self-reported indices of poorer sleep quality, over and above negative affect...

Although gratitude research has begun to examine how gratitude to God or a divine being relates to human behavior research on gratitude in romantic relationships has not yet addressed this type of gratitude. Because gratitude to God is typically expressed through prayer, this study examined whether generalized gratitude and prayers of gratitude wer...

It is common to attribute natural disasters to ‘acts of God’ yet the implications of doing so for victims of such disasters is relatively underexplored. Relevant data on the association between attributing a natural disaster to God and psychological well-being are contradictory and cross-sectional. A longitudinal study (N = 269) was therefore condu...

Objectives. This article describes the concept of caring for bliss and provides initial data on the development and validation of the Caring for Bliss Scale (CBS). Caring for bliss is defined as the cultivation of inner joy or genuine happiness based on a peaceful state of mind and a compassionate heart. It entails practices designed to generate fe...

Cyber dating abuse can lead to negative outcomes for the message receiver and for the relationship. Extending previous research examining problematic technology-based behavior and attachment security, this study examined whether insecure attachment moderates the relationship between cyber dating abuse and relationship quality in emerging adults (N...

Racial discrimination is a part of the lived experience for African Americans, and it is widely found to have damaging consequences to their mental and physical health; yet, we know less about how romantic partners influence the degree to which racial discrimination can impinge on health outcomes. Using a dyadic approach with heterosexual African A...

Ageism in the workplace has documented detrimental consequences for its victims, but its effects on those who hold ageist views are rarely investigated. A cross‐sectional study and a longitudinal study examined ageism toward both younger and older workers and its relation to intergroup contact, work behaviors, organizational identification, and the...

Majority of college students hook up at least once during their time in school. The literature on casual sex encounters among college students is growing, though most studies are cross-sectional and individual studies focus on few outcomes at a time, leaving piecemeal and mixed results. The current longitudinal study clarifies prior work by analyzi...

Interpersonal forgiveness, self-forgiveness and divine forgiveness have all been related to depressive symptoms. But does each type of forgiveness account for unique variance in depression? Two studies examine this question. Study 1 (n = 574) showed that each form of forgiveness was related to concurrent depressive symptoms independently of the oth...

Relationship mindfulness is the degree to which individuals tend to be mindful during interactions with romantic partners. In this study, we examined both the intrapersonal and interpersonal links between relationship mindfulness and psychological and relationship functioning in a sample of 219 couples who had been in their relationship for at leas...

Alcohol use, which is often associated with other problems in well-being, is a persistent problem among college students. Helicopter parenting, defined as parental overinvolvement, is an emerging parenting behavior that could be associated with alcohol use among college students. This study of 473 female undergraduate students investigated the asso...

Although the existence of an association between religion and self-forgiveness is well documented, the direction of effects and possible causal nature of the relationship is unknown. Two studies were therefore conducted using longitudinal and experimental designs, respectively. Study 1 (n = 393) examined the temporal relation between self-forgivene...

Burgeoning research investigating the effects of daily stress on romantic relationships has paved the way for identifying a variety of means of buffering the negative effects of stress. This article reviews the literature on stress spillover from outside the relationship (extradyadic) on relationship behaviors for both partners to stress inside the...

The self-forgiveness process may be considered emotionally taxing among college students. The current study explored college students’ past intrapersonal transgressions (n = 88) through two outcomes (able or unable to forgive oneself). Using NVivo 11 Pro software, thematic analyses revealed the most common situational circumstances and internal emo...

Objectives Research on indulgent parenting in childhood and adolescence and its association with helicopter parenting in emerging adulthood and the well-being of parents and emerging adult children is limited. In this study, we examined (1) the association between indulgent parenting in childhood and adolescence and helicopter parenting in emerging...

A reliable association exists between self-forgiveness and well-being. But self-forgiveness and its correlates will not be fully understood without considering forgiveness by God or divine forgiveness, especially in light of the fact that the majority of the population identifies as religious. This study therefore examined the role of divine forgiv...

Study Objective Psychological risk factors that lead to impaired work performance, negatively impacting mental and physical health, have emerged as a concern across clinical settings. Although depression and anxiety are linked to poor physician mental health, physician burnout characterized by work related stress due to chronic exhaustion from clin...

Although the importance of occupational burnout for sleep has long been recognized, it is largely examined as an individual phenomenon. Because a majority of adults in the U.S. share the bedroom with their partner, the current study examines the role of occupational burnout in understanding the link between self-control and sleep disturbance in clo...

This research systematically evaluates via prototype analysis how conceptualizations of Western adult's monotheistic God are structured. Over 4 studies, using U.S. student and community samples of predominantly Christians, features of God are identified, feature centrality is documented, and centrality influence on cognition is evaluated. Studies 1...

The purpose of the present research is to evaluate the sources of variation across family members’ cognitive representation of deity figure(s) via social relations modeling (SRM). Using SRM, this study identifies the degree to which family members’ beliefs about the deity are due to differences in the reporting member (actor effects), the member be...

This study examined characteristics of individuals that are associated with being in asymmetrically committed relationships (ACRs), defined as romantic relationships in which there was a substantial difference in the commitment levels of the partners. These ACRs were studied in a national sample of unmarried, opposite-sex romantic relationships (N...

With the detrimental relationship between school burnout and physiological and cognitive functioning now well documented, interventions to ameliorate school burnout symptomology are needed. This study examined the effectiveness of a self-regulatory biofeedback intervention program (Heart Rate Variability Coherence Biofeedback Training [HRVCB]) in c...

Because stress from marital conflict negatively impacts cardiovascular health, understanding the association between trait mindfulness and cardiovascular functioning in the context of marital conflict may translate into physical health benefits. In this study, data from married couples (N = 90) were collected to examine the intrapersonal and interp...

Although the quality of marriage and marriage-like relationships (e.g., cohabitation) has been linked to the risk of developing diabetes and being able to effectively manage the disease once developed, it is unclear which aspects of marital quality drive these associations. Method: Using nationally representative data (Midlife in the United States,...

Research on indulgent parenting and its relation to college students is both limited and inconsistent. Further, all the studies have used a variable-centered approach. To fill the gap in the current literature, the aims of this study were to explore profiles of parental indulgence and their associations with college students’ emotional and behavior...

Experiencing a traumatic event is generally posited to increase vulnerability. Informed by a stress process framework, this study investigated the relation of posttraumatic stress to depressive symptoms, risky drinking, and school burnout in emerging adulthood, a developmental period during which common behavioral and psychological disorders reach...

Diabetes patients’ perceived social support is consistently linked to their ability to manage blood glucose (HgA1c). However, little is known about which social relationships are linked to HgA1c. We use linear regression to examine how family, marital, and friendship support/strain predict HgA1c for diabetes patients. For the marital models we incl...

For diabetics, the mental health facets of quality of life are often comorbid with the development and progression of the disease. Compared to the general population, depressive and anxiety symptoms (D/A) are higher among diabetics. Further, several factors associated with higher D/A (e.g., obesity-promoting behaviors and neuroendocrine and inflamm...

We investigated, in two studies, whether forgiveness mediates the relationship between responsibility attributions and marital outcomes among American and Indian couples using the actor–partner interdependence mediation model. In American couples (n = 96), husband forgiveness mediated the link between husband attributions and wife closeness in Stud...