Attachment theory, childhood mistreatment, and religiosity.

Abstract

Guided by attachment theory, the authors explore the relationship of verbal, physical, and sexual mistreatment to attachment to God, as well as to concepts of God. Each form of mistreatment was related adversely to the religiosity measures. Attachment to parents mediated the relationship between two maltreatment variables (verbal and physical mistreatment) and attachment to God, as well as the concept of God as loving and as distant. However, attachment to parents did not mediate the relationship between attachment to God and the sexual abuse variable. Sexual abuse was strongly related to difficulties with attachment to God and one's concept of God. The findings add support to the notion, even when childhood mistreatment is taken into account, that a secure attachment to parents provides the necessary context for socialization into religion.

Religiosity of young adults: does childhood maltreatment make a difference?

“…as loving, controlling, or distant), which have often been used in studies of the association between maltreatment and religiosity (e.g. Kane et al, 1993;Reinert & Edwards, 2009). Perhaps childhood maltreatment has stronger effects on some aspects of religiosity than others.…”

“…religious participation, importance of religion, stability of religious affiliation, religious doubts, and images of God). Findings of these studies have been mixed, with most showing decreased religiosity among abuse victims (Bierman, 2005;Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis, & Smith, 1989;Hall, 1995;Kane, Cheston, & Greer, 1993;Reinert & Edwards, 2009) (Kennedy & Drebing, 2002;Lawson, Drebing, Berg, Vincellette, & Penk, 1998;Reinert & Smith, 1997).…”

“…The present study attempts to address these limitations in three ways: (a) whereas previous studies have often relied upon small and select samples, for example, members of a single religious denomination (Kennedy & Drebing, 2002;Pritt, 1998); substance abuse treatment patients (Lawson et al, 1998); women only (Hall, 1995;Kane et al, 1993;Pritt, 1998;Reinert & Smith, 1997;Ryan, 1998b); or predominantly caucasians (Reinert & Edwards, 2009), the present study employed a large sample of college students who were diverse in terms of gender, race, and religious denomination; (b) while most previous studies have examined only child sexual abuse (Finkelhor et al, 1989;Hall, 1995;Kane et al, 1993;Pritt, 1998;Reinert & Smith, 1997;Ryan, 1998b), or have combined multiple forms of abuse into a single category (Bierman, 2005;Kennedy & Drebing, 2002), we considered the independent and joint associations with religiosity of three distinct forms of child maltreatment: child physical abuse (CPA), child sexual abuse (CSA), and child emotional abuse (CEA); (c) whereas many previous studies have failed to control for potential demographic confounds, we examined associations between maltreatment and religiosity after controlling for age, sex, race, and income in the family of origin.…”

Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Religious Life: Challenges of Theory and Method

“…An individual's relationship to God is indeed not only an attachment in itself but a reflection of one's IWM of attachment, often uniquely affected in the case of CSA (Alexander, 1992;Brokaw & Edwards, 1994). Quite notably, a recent study broadly examining child maltreatment (physical, verbal, sexual) found that individuals who reported higher levels of sexual abuse than other forms of maltreatment showed a more insecure attachment to God (Reinert & Edwards, 2009). CSA investigators are strongly encouraged to build on this contribution by allowing attachment theory to guide their future research and hypotheses.…”

Cultura, neurociencia y espiritualidad : abordaje neuropsico- espiritual en psicoterapia

“…El apego a Dios en el que los individuos perciben a Dios como un ser benevolente y emocionalmente accesible o "seguro", funciona como un factor de protección que reduce los niveles de ansiedad (Bradshaw, Ellison & Marcum, 2010;Miner, 2009); también con mujeres jóvenes en riesgo para desórdenes alimentarios (Homan and Boyatzis, 2010) o en pacientes que sufren de dolor crónico (Dezutter, Luyckx Schaap-Jonker Büssing, Corveleyn and Hutsebaut, 2010), mientras que un apego "inseguro" a Dios correlaciona con mayor ansiedad, mayor riesgo en conductas asociadas con desórdenes alimentarios o niveles de dolor en pacientes médicos. Como es de esperar, poblaciones con trauma familiar tienden a experimentar a Dios desde la "inseguridad" (Reinert and Edwards, 2009).…”