Attachment and Spiritual Maturity 65
Secure Adult Attachment as a Predictor Of Faith Maturity
Secure Adult Attachment accounts for more variance in Total Faith Maturity than
any other variable. Not only was Secure Adult Attachment significantly related to faith
maturity, but it also was the best predictor of faith maturity. It was hypothesized that
Secure Adult Attachment would be the best predictor of Total Faith Maturity as well as
Vertical and Horizontal Faith Maturity. The hypotheses for Total and Vertical Faith
Maturity were supported. The hypothesis that Secure Adult Attachment would be the
best predictor of Horizontal Faith Maturity was not supported.
The variable ofPaternal Overprotection accounts for more of the variance in
Horizontal Faith Maturity than Secure Adult Attachment. For Horizontal Faith Maturity, paternal overprotection (t = 2.26) was a slightly stronger predictor than was
secure adult attachment.
A possible explanation for this finding is that studies suggest that a persons' image of
their father has been found to be consistent with their image of God, (Brokaw and
Edwards, 1994; Hall and Brokaw, 1995; Hall et al. 1996). This is convergent with the
findings of Strahan ( 1998). He found that sons who rated their fathers as overprotective
and caring (affectionate constraint) on the PBI saw God as more empowering and less
distant. He suggested that their view ofGod may be driven by anxiety and dependency
rather than security. Twenty-nine percent of the participants of the current study
reported affectionate constraint parenting. This suggests that subjects who report a
childhood image of father as affectionate constraint, may also report elevated Horizontal
Faith Maturity scores. These elevations may be motivated from a feeling of being duty
bound to God.
This could be explained by parental religiosity. There was a significant relationship found between parental religiosity and secure adult attachment (r = .22). Parental religiosity also related significantly with Horizontal Faith Maturity (r = .13) .
This might suggest that how committed parents were to their faith, how often they
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