Relationships among adult friendship attachment styles and levels of hope, self-disclosure, relationship satisfaction, and trust were studied to assess their validity as explanatory factors in friendship attachments in a cross-section of 268 undergraduate students at a small, private university. Significant relationships were found between attachment styles and hope, self-disclosure, and relationship satisfaction. Specifically, securely attached individuals showed significantly more hope, self-disclosure, and relationship satisfaction than individuals with fearful attachment styles. In addition, individuals with fearful attachment styles showed significantly less hope, self-disclosure, and relationship satisfaction than individuals with secure, dismissing, or preoccupied attachment styles.

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Spiritual maturation processes of internalization and questing were assessed at a Christian university to determine their relationship to year in school and certain religious behaviors. This was a first step toward the development of a new model of Christian higher education that will intentionally facilitate spiritual maturation. A group of 179 university students, ranging in age from 17 to 25 years and representing all four undergraduate classes, completed measures of spiritual maturation. The group of 75 males and 104 females professing . Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression statistical procedures were used to assess these spiritual maturation processes across year in school, gender, upper and lower class status, and religious behavior levels. The study found that year in school and class status were significantly and positively related to questing processes. Results also showed that religious behaviors were significantly and positively related to internalization processes. In addition, women showed significantly greater internalization than men. The study provides support for a new model of spiritual maturation for Christian university students.This study represents a step toward the development of a new model of Christian higher education. The study assessed the degree to which both internalization and questing processes function in the spiritual maturation of Christian university students. By assessing how these processes develop over years in school and how they are related to religious behavior levels, the study identifies specific ways in which mature faith can be intentionally developed at Christian universities. By documenting the contributions of both internalization and questing to spiritual maturation in Christian university students, the groundwork is laid for the

Drawing on existing research regarding adult attachment, attachment to God, and Trinitarian theology, the current study investigated the level of attachment security to God (comparing secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful types) and the connection with hope and religious behaviors. Significant, positive relationships were hypothesized among the variables of secure attachment to God, high levels of hope, and high participation in religious behaviors in Christian college students. A cross-section of 268 undergraduate students at a Christian university completed the Attachment to God Inventory (Beck & Mc-Donald, 2004), the Herth Hope Index (Herth, 1992), Relationships Structures Questionnaire (Fraley et al., 2006) and demographic questions regarding their religious behaviors. Results were analyzed utilizing correlation, polynomial logistic regression, multiple regression, and path analyses. Results indicated that the levels of hope and religious behaviors predicted 36.6% of the variance in attachment to God-avoidance. Findings regarding personal versus corporate religious behaviors are discussed. Conclusions and implications regarding attachment to God and Trinitarian theology are discussed. The study of adult attachment has expanded in recent years with the study of romantic and friendship attachments (Hazan & Shaver, 1987; Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and attachment to God (Kirkpatrick, 1997; Beck & McDonald, 2004; Miner, 2007). God has been purported to be the ultimate attachment figure for corrective attachment, as direct feedback from God, unlike most attachment figures, cannot interfere with or contaminate the bond (Kirkpatrick, 1998). A strong need for empirical study incorporating theological and psychological perspectives with attachment to God exists, as this has been studied primarily from a psychological perspective. Miner's (2007) attempt to theoretically apply Gunton's (1985) Trinitarian Theology to attachment to God was a step in the right direction, but was not empirical. The current study attempted to bridge this gap through empirical study with a survey-based methodology of attachment to God, hope, and religious behaviors. Conflicting findings exist regarding the degree of similarity between attachment to God and human attachments (Kirkpatrick, 1997; Beck & McDonald, 2004). As such, this study explored factors that could clarify contributions of correspondence and compensation. Attachment Theory & Behaviors As identified in Bowlby's (1969) seminal attachment work, attachment bonds involve a desire to maintain proximity or contact, distress at involuntary separation, and security and comfort-seeking behaviors (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999). Primary attachment behaviors include using the caregiver as a secure base, maintaining proximity, and using the caregiver as a safe haven. When proximity is not achieved, individuals experience separation anxiety and emotional responses due to the impending loss of the attachment figure, varying according to the individual's attachment style (