COMFORTABLE EXPLORATION: AN EXAMINATION OF THE LINK BETWEEN ATTACHMENT ANXIETY AND EMERGING ADULT RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Emerging adulthood has been characterized as a time for exploration and identity development (Arnett, 2000), making it an important period for the examination of religious exploration. Attachment theory postulates that a more secure attachment helps to facilitate exploration (Fredrickson, 2001; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2002). As attachment theory has been applied to religion, it has been argued that the internal working model established with parents or caregivers may translate into a correspondence pathway, in which the reported religious affiliation of the emerging adult corresponds to the parental religious affiliation (Granqvist, Mikulincer, & Shaver, 2010). At the same time, as attachment theory has traditionally been applied to affect regulation models (Shaver & Mikulincer, 2002), it has been hypothesized that a more secure attachment, once activated by perceived religious threat, may result in more security-related coping strategies and allow for more exploration (e.g., secure base behavior). In integrating these two models, it stands to reason that more attachment security, or less attachment anxiety, might be associated with a religious affiliation that corresponds with parental affiliation, yet also permit increased reported comfort exploring or appreciating other religious traditions with less reported feeling that familial religious traditions are being challenged. That is, attachment anxiety, or less security, should be negatively related to religious exploration, with comfort with other religious traditions mediating this association. To test these proposed associations, a specialized survey was constructed to access respondents' comfort level with distinct scenarios describing realistic encounters with other religions. Hierarchical regressions were performed in order to examine each pathway. Bootstrapping mediational analyses conducted with data from a sample of 145 undergraduates supported an indirect pathway, whereby attachment anxiety negatively predicted comfort with religious exposure, which in turn positively predicted likelihood of religious exploration. These findings support the application of a general attachment activation model to the study of religion and attachment, as well as furnish evidence for the role of perceived religious threat in the relationship between attachment security and exploration.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Simpson, Emily

• Attachment

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39390

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/39390