Attachment Styles and Spiritual Maturity: The Role of Secur…

Attachment and Spiritual Maturity 46

Further, evidence ofconstruct validity was found with significant correlations between the measures of parental attachment.

Adult Attachment Styles

Secure adult attachment style is measured with the secure subscale from the

Attachment Style Questionnaire (Feeney, Noller, & Hanrahan, 1994). The range of scores

on the secure subscale is from 12 to 72.

Two types of reliability data have been collected on this 40-item measure. The

coefficient alpha for the factor (Security .83) suggested that the scale had a high level of

internal consistency (Feeney et al. 1994). Test-retest reliability estimates were reported

in an acceptable range (Feeney et al. 1994). The validity of the scales is indicated by the

pattern ofassociations with Hazan and Shaver's (1987) measure of attachment style and

the predictable patterns ofcorrelation with measure of family functioning and

personality. In addition, cluster analyses suggested that relatively distinct attachment

groups can be identified on the basis of the scales (Feeney et al. 1994b).

Control Variables

Age

Age was measured through self report.

Years a Christian Years a Christian was measured through self report on how many years since they

first accepted Christ as their Savior.

Religiousness ofParents.

Religiousness of parents during participant' s growing up years is defined by

replicating Kirkpatrick and Shaver' s (1990) three demographic questions. Participants

reported how often their parents attended church, how committed they were to their

faith, and how frequently religious issues were discussed in their family. The sum of the

responses to these three inquiries estimated the percentage of parents' religiousness.

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