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Introduction: Romantic partner betrayal is a common and painful experience from which it can be difficult to move on. Forgiveness has been consistently identified as a key facilitator of healing following betrayal, both at the individual and relationship levels. As forgiveness has been consistently conceptualized as an emotion-focused process, this study aimed to examine emotion regulation ability as a potential predictor of forgiveness following romantic partner betrayal. Method: 51 women whose romantic partners had recently committed an act of serious betrayal against them completed an emotion regulation task while electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded. They then reported how much they had forgiven that individual for the act of betrayal at a 6-month follow-up. Results and Discussion: The ability to up-regulate emotional responses to negatively valenced stimuli was associated with higher levels of forgiveness at follow-up, furthering the notion that healing from trauma requires active engagement with distressing feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maltreating mothers often struggle to respond sensitively to their children's distress. Examining psychophysiological processing of own child cues may offer insight into neurobiological mechanisms that promote sensitive parenting among high-risk mothers. The current study used event-related potential (ERP) methodology to examine associations between mothers' neural responses to their own child versus other children and observed sensitivity to distress. Participants included 73 mothers: 42 with histories of child protective services (CPS) involvement and 31 low-risk comparison mothers. Maternal sensitivity to child distress was coded from observations of children's blood sample collection. Late positive potential (LPP) ERP responses, which reflect sustained attention to emotionally salient stimuli, were measured when mothers viewed photos of their own child and other children. An own-other LPP difference score (own-other LPP) was computed by regressing the mean amplitude of mothers' LPP to their own child on the mean amplitude of mothers' LPP to other children. CPS-referred mothers and low-risk mothers did not differ in their LPP responses to own child, other children, or the own-other LPP. However, there was a significant interaction between group (CPS-referred vs. low-risk) and own-other LPP in predicting maternal sensitivity. Among the CPS-referred mothers, own-other LPP was significantly correlated with maternal sensitivity, with greater LPP amplitude to own versus other child associated with higher maternal sensitivity. In contrast, among the low-risk group, own-other LPP was not significantly correlated with maternal sensitivity. Findings add to our understanding of the neurobiology of sensitive parenting among high-risk mothers.