Between God and self: exploring the attachment to God and authenticity/inauthenticity tendencies of South African Christian youths

Abstract

The paper explores the relationship between attachment to God (AG) and authenticity/inauthenticity among Christian youths in relation to a range of socio-demographic variables. Cross-sectional data were collected from 100 South African Christian youths using measures of AG and authenticity/inauthenticity. The correlation results reveal that feelings of insecurity in terms of having anxiety in a relationship with God is positively related to self-alienation (feeling out of touch with oneself) and accepting external influences (conforming to the standards and expectations of others), but negatively correlated to authentic living (being in tune with one's self). Feelings of insecurity in terms of avoidant God-attachment was also related to self-alienation. In addition, demographic differences were observed for gender and church denomination. These results suggest that insecurity with God may either be linked to feelings of authenticity or self-estrangement among Christian youths and have broad implications, both for clinical usage and further cross-cultural research.ARTICLE HISTORY

Pastoral juxtaposition in spiritual care: Towards a caregiving faith theology in an evangelical Christian context

“…In other words, the social behaviour of a person is guided by their personal relationships, biographies, memories and expectations, as a result of their attachment working model from which they evaluate and direct their relationships with others (Bretherton & Munholland 1999). It is on this basis that several non-traditional applications of attachment theory have been proposed, exploring attachment to God (Counted 2016a(Counted , 2016bCounted & Moustafa 2017;Granqvist & Kirkpatrick 2016;Granqvist et al 2010;Hall et al 2009;Rowatt & Kirkpatrick 2002), attachment to romantic partners (Holmes 2009;Hudson et al 2014), attachment to place (Counted & Watts 2017;Scannell & Gifford 2010) and attachment to workplace (Hardy & Barkman 1994;Hazan & Shaver 1990). The application of attachment theory in understanding broader perspectives of social relationship dynamics is, arguably, without limit.…”

“…Attachment theory was recently applied in a study (e.g. Counted 2016a;2016b;Counted & Moustafa 2017) with South African Christian youths, from which Counted (2016a) described youth faith experience as an attachment experience and a 'caregiving faith' in which youth develops an attachment behaviour towards God who is perceived as a symbolic attachment figure in times of emotional separation from a primary caregiver. In this kind of faith experience, the young person emphasises the importance of emotional support and the need for a divineomnipresent caregiver.…”

“…Ano and Pargament (2013) have linked insecure attachment with God to spiritual struggles. Counted and Moustafa (2017) report a correlation between insecure attachment with God and feeling out of touch with one's self http://www.hts.org.za Open Access…”

“…This article draws heavily on the first author's research on youth faith formation of South African Christian youths (e.g. Counted 2016a;2016b;Counted & Moustafa 2017) to offer a pastoral response to the 'pattern of youth attachment behaviour towards God in which the young person emphasizes the importance of needing care and emotional support in their faith experience' (Counted 2016a:167). In a typical faith development scenario in young people's pursuit of emotional security, God becomes the proximal attachment figure and a reliable caregiver in the absence of a parent or a relational other.…”

Attachment Style, Marital Satisfaction, and Mutual Support Attachment Style in Qatar

“…While there are several studies on the relationship between attachment and marital satisfaction, most of these investigations were conducted in Western countries (Monin et al, 2019; Novak et al, 2017; Sandberg et al, 2017), with only a few done in Eastern cultures (Kamel Abbasi et al, 2016; Karimi et al, 2019; Mohammadi et al, 2016). Attachment styles are important to investigate as they are related to well-being, depression, and anxiety of individuals and couples alike (Counted & Moustafa, 2017; Valikahni et al, 2018). Similarly, while the impact of mutual support on marital satisfaction and well-being has been studied in Western countries (Bradley & Hojjat, 2017; Waldinger et al, 2015), there are no similar studies in the Arab world.…”