Spirituality, Self-Representations, and Attachment to Parents: A Longitudinal Study of Roman Catholic College Seminarians
✍ Scribed by Duane F. Reinert
- Book ID
- 102872777
- Publisher
- American Counseling Association
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 818 KB
- Volume
- 49
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0160-7960
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The author used an attachment theory framework to explore relationships between early attachment to parents and seminarians' later selfrepresentations and relationship with God. Attachment to mother was a key variable in predicting seminarians' level of self-esteem and internalized shame as well as the quality of their relationship with God. This study suggests that a secure relationship with God may, over time, have a moderating effect on low self-esteem. Furthermore, an individual's style of early attachment to mother may influence the quality of later spiritual experiences in relation to God. Implications for counseling are discussed from the perspective of attachment theory.
ttachment theory, which offers a rich perspective for understanding both early psychological development (see Sperling & Berman, 1994)
A and later religious experience (Kirkpatrick, 1994), suggests that the quality of early parental relationships may play a key role both in an individual's sense of self as well as in his or her relationship with God. A key question in this study was whether seminarians' self-reported attachment to God, expressed behaviorally by their regularly engaging in religious practices, would over time have a positive moderating effect on self-representations, as expressed by their reported self-esteem and internalized shame. The purpose of the study was not only to determine the impact of parental attachment on both self-representations and spiritual experiences but also to measure any change over time in these key variables, and, on the basis of these findings, to suggest implications for counseling.