Category
Applied
Description
Attachment theory describes the innate desire for infants to form bonds with their caregivers, which impacts biopsychosocial functioning across the lifespan. Attachment theory has expanded to religious and spiritual contexts to describe the innate desire for individuals to form a relationship with God. One prominent religious practice is prayer, which is a relational tool performed by an individual or a group to communicate with and form a stronger relationship with God. Prayer has demonstrated relationships with various positive mental health outcomes and a stronger attachment to God. However, previous literature has yet to examine the relationship between various forms of prayer and attachment to God. To fill in this gap, 340 participants completed the Multidimensional Prayer Inventory (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and reception) and the Attachment to God Inventory. Each form of prayer will be used as a predictor of attachment to God in a multiple regression analysis. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to investigate potential interactions between the length of prayer and gender with prayer types. Results, implications, limitations, and future directions will be discussed.
Prayer as a Predictor to God Attachment
Applied
Attachment theory describes the innate desire for infants to form bonds with their caregivers, which impacts biopsychosocial functioning across the lifespan. Attachment theory has expanded to religious and spiritual contexts to describe the innate desire for individuals to form a relationship with God. One prominent religious practice is prayer, which is a relational tool performed by an individual or a group to communicate with and form a stronger relationship with God. Prayer has demonstrated relationships with various positive mental health outcomes and a stronger attachment to God. However, previous literature has yet to examine the relationship between various forms of prayer and attachment to God. To fill in this gap, 340 participants completed the Multidimensional Prayer Inventory (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and reception) and the Attachment to God Inventory. Each form of prayer will be used as a predictor of attachment to God in a multiple regression analysis. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to investigate potential interactions between the length of prayer and gender with prayer types. Results, implications, limitations, and future directions will be discussed.
