Rowatt, W. C., & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (2002). Dimensions of attachment
to God and their relation to affect, religiosity, and personality constructs.
Journal
for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41, 637-651.
Abstract
In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research
on attachment theory and religion God by (1) developing a multidimensional
scale of attachment to God, and (2) demonstrating that these scales are
predictive of measures of personality and affect after controlling for
social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity.
Questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by a sample (total
n = 374) of university students and community adults. Consistent
with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment
to God were identified: avoidance (vs. security) and anxiety. After
statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness,
doctrinal orthodoxy, and loving images of God, anxious attachment to God
remained a significant predictor of neuroticism, negative affect, and (inversely)
positive affect; avoidant attachment to God remained a significant (inverse)
predictor of religious symbolic immortality and agreeableness. These
findings are evidence that correlations between attachment to God and measures
of personality and affect are not merely byproducts of confounding effects
of socially desirable responding or other dimensions of religiosity.
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