Attachment and Spiritual Maturity 44
equality, and social justice behaviors (Benson et al. 1993). The prediction that faith
maturity was positively related to age was confirmed (Wrightsman, 1988). Independent Variables
Perceived Secure Childhood Attachment
This variable represents the amount of attachment that is perceived when recalling childhood relationships with parents. Two measures were used to recall childhood
attachment. The first measure was developed by Hazen and Shaver (1987). This
measure was used by Kirkpatrick and Shaver (1990) in assessing childhood attachment.
Three choices are presented about subjects relationship with their mother. They are described below:
She was generally warm and responsive; she was good at
knowing when to be supportive and when to let me operate on my
own; our relationship was almost always comfortable, and I have no major reservations or complaints about it (Secure). She was fairly cold, distant, and rejecting, and not very responsive; I often felt that her concerns were elsewhere; I frequently
had the feeling that she would just as soon not have had me (Avoidant).
She was noticeably inconsistent in her reactions to me, sometimes
warm and sometimes not; she had her own needs and agendas which
sometimes got in the way of her receptiveness and responsiveness to
my needs; she definitely loved me but didn't always show it in the
best way (Anxious Ambivalent) (Hazen and Shaver, 1987).
The names of the categories; secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent did not appear on
the surveys. The second measure developed by Parker, Tupling, and Brown (1979) assesses
the retrospective quality of parental relationships. The Parental Bonding Instrument
(PBI) is a 25-item paper and pencil measure that separately assesses subject's
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