The Psychology of Youth Faith Formation: A care-giving faith?

Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 2016

This study examines the role of the Christian God as an attachment figure, using the attachment language criteria of a strong and enduring affectionate bond. Respondents were 15 anxiously attached Christian youths, purposefully selected for in-depth interviews to explore their God attachment language and God concepts. The results show how the respondents saw God as a target for their proximity-seeking behaviors, albeit conflicted in their relationship experience. They also used some form of metaphorical theology that represented God to them as either stronger or wiser, as a safe haven for security, or as a response to their internal conflict.

Mental Health, Religion, and Culture, 2017

The paper explores the relationship between attachment to God (AG) and authenticity/inauthenticity among Christian youths in relation to a range of socio-demographic variables. Cross-sectional data were collected from 100 South African Christian youths using measures of AG and authenticity/inauthenticity. The correlation results reveal that feelings of insecurity in terms of having anxiety in a relationship with God is positively related to self-alienation (feeling out of touch with oneself) and accepting external influences (conforming to the standards and expectations of others), but negatively correlated to authentic living (being in tune with one’s self). Feelings of insecurity in terms of avoidant God-attachment was also related to self-alienation. In addition, demographic differences were observed for gender and church denomination. These results suggest that insecurity with God may either be linked to feelings of authenticity or self-estrangement among Christian youths and have broad implications, both for clinical usage and further cross-cultural research.

This paper will evaluate the researcher's hypothesis that an individual's attachment style in relationship with God has both a correlation, and a correspondence to that individual's stage of faith, which is often revealed by their theological praxis. Moreover, it will evaluate the correlation between a secure attachment in an individual's relationship with God and faith development. Finally, this paper will suggest the next steps that research could take to advance understanding in this field, in each of these areas.

International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2012

Developmental Psychology, 2008

Based on the idea that believers' perceived relationships with God develop from their attachment-related experiences with primary caregivers, the authors explored the quality of such experiences and their representations among individuals who differed in likelihood of experiencing a principal attachment to God. Using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), they compared attachment-related experiences and representations in a group of 30 Catholic priests and religious with a matched group of lay Catholics and with the worldwide normal distribution of AAI classifications. They found an overrepresentation of secure-autonomous states regarding attachment among those more likely to experience a principal attachment to God (i.e., the priests and religious) compared with the other groups and an underrepresentation of unresolved-disorganized states in the two groups of Catholics compared with the worldwide normal distribution. Key findings also included links between secure-autonomous states regarding attachment and estimated experiences with loving or nonrejecting parents on the one hand and loving God imagery on the other. These results extend the literature on religion from an attachment perspective and support the idea that generalized working models derived from attachment experiences with parents are reflected in believers' perceptions of God.

A presentation at the 6th European Conference on Religion, Spirituality, and Health & International Conference of British Association for the Study of Spirituality, 2018

This presentation draws broadly on insights from attachment theory to discuss the main and interactive effects of attachment to God (AG), attitudes toward God (ATG), and quality of life (QoL) outcomes in a cross-sectional sample of African Christian church goers (N=261; mean age = 36.9) who are residents of New South Wales, Australia. Respondents completed measures of AG, ATG, and QoL. In regression analyses controlling for length of stay, age, education background, relationship status, gender, region of origin, and length of residence, AG was positively associated with all outcomes of QoL, while positive ATG was negatively related to environmental health, social relationship quality, and general QoL. The interactive effects results reveal that AG is inversely associated with QoL outcomes among individuals with positive ATG, suggesting that the effects of secure AG may contribute to better QoL but not when moderated by feelings of positive ATG which seem theologically ineffective in terms of better QoL. The limitations and implications of study findings are discussed while emphasizing on the contrasts between emotions and feelings. I argued that our feelings can get in the way of the benefits of our relationship with God who plays the role of our ultimate attachment figure. The emotional quality of faith is enduring and reliable even in the dungeon of affliction and can translate to better quality of life.

Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2010

The authors review findings from the psychology of religion showing that believers' perceived relationships with God meet the definitional criteria for attachment relationships. They also review evidence for associations between aspects of religion and individual differences in interpersonal attachment security and insecurity. They focus on two developmental pathways to religion. The first is a "compensation" pathway involving distress regulation in the context of insecure attachment and past experiences of insensitive caregiving. Research suggests that religion as compensation might set in motion an "earned security" process for individuals who are insecure with respect to attachment. The second is a "correspondence" pathway based on secure attachment and past experiences with sensitive caregivers who were religious. The authors also discuss conceptual limitations of a narrow religion-as-attachment model and propose a more inclusive framework that accommodates concepts such as mindfulness and "nonattachment" from nontheistic religions such as Buddhism and New Age spirituality.

Developmental Psychology, 2007

This study was the first to examine relations between attachment and religion-spirituality in adults using a developmentally validated attachment assessment, the Adult Attachment Interview. Security of attachment was expected to be linked to a religiosity-spirituality that is socially based on the parental relationships and reflects extrapolation of attachment experiences with sensitive parents to perceived relationships with a loving God. Insecurity of attachment was expected to be related to religiosityspirituality via emotional compensation for states of insecurity. Participants (N ϭ 84; 40% men; mean age ϭ 29 years) were drawn from religious-spiritual groups. Religiousness-spirituality was assessed with questionnaires. Results generally supported the hypotheses ( ps Ͻ .05). Estimates of parental loving were linked to socially based religiosity, loving God images, and gradual religious changes occurring at early ages and in life contexts indicating a positive influence of close relationships. Estimates of parental rejection and role reversal were related to New Age spirituality and sudden-intense religious changes occurring in life contexts of turmoil. Current attachment state of mind was generally unrelated to traditional religiosity, but current preoccupation, unresolved-disorganized, and cannot classify states were associated with New Age spirituality.

Journal of Psychology and Theology

Assessment of attachment to God (ATG) has generally focused on tapping the construct via self-report measures. Little, if any attention has been paid to assessing ATG via independent ratings of Christians’ relationship with God narratives, obtained at interview. The current study addressed this deficit. It documents the development of a template for assessing Christians’ relationship with God narratives for specific ATG experiences. Three theoretically-derived ATG profiles, labeled as secure-autonomous, insecure-anxious/preoccupied and insecure-dismissing ATG were operationally defined as a series of relational markers. Thirty-one Christians participated in a God Attachment Interview Schedule (GAIS), a semi-structured interview which taps Christians’ past and present relationship with God experiences. Participants’ narratives were analyzed using the template, this revealing relational evidence supportive of the hypothesized relational markers. Validation of the template is an import...

2018

A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF GOD ATTACHMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE AMONG EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS Gary Todd Hardin, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Eric L. Johnson This pilot study explored the possible relationships between attachment to God and the Christian faith and life among a small sample of evangelical Christians. A quantitative analysis was performed on Christian adults (N=189) in local churches in the southeastern region of the United States. The study examined the relationships between attachment to God, awareness of the value of sin-beliefs, beliefs about sin, and levels of religious defensiveness. The project used correlational and stepwise regression analyses. The study found there was a significant negative variance between avoidance of intimacy with God, anxiety over abandonment by God, avoidance of legalism and religious defensiveness. Implications for Christian psychology and pastoral ministry were also discussed.