In this study, the authors investigated the contention that an individuals experience of a personal relationship with God functions in a similar way to a human relationship and can be considered an attachment.

From an attachment perpective, God (as a superior being) will act as a secure base for the believer. Also, the individual engaged in a relationship with God is less likely to confound the attachment with either sexual or caregiving behaviour on their part. Thus this type of attachment is more akin to child-parent attachment than peer attachment, making it more likely that this form of attachment is closer to the 'pure' attachment learnt during childhood experience.

Subjects were 213 respondants who had taken part in earlier attachment studies.   This group was 85% female, 98% white, had a mean age of 39.8, and was educationally above average. Measured used were the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), scales tapping religious orientation, perception of God, religious belief, religious practice and relationship with God, and scales measuring general life satisfaction, mental and physical health.

Attachment to God

Participants with a secure attachment to God, perceived God as more loving, less controlling and less distant than those with insecure attachment.  They also scored highest on level of commitment to religion. Those with an avoidant attachment to God were most inclined towards agnosticism whilst individuals with an anxious/ambivalent attachment to God reported the highest incidence of speaking in tongues as well as the greatest proportion of atheists and individuals describing themselves as anti-religious. The authors note that results for insecurely attached subjects appear to parallel the idea that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, with anxious/ambivalent subjects tending towards being demonstratively religious or atheistic (amibavalent between these two extremes) and avoidant subjects being agnostic (indifference).

Adult Attachment

Adult attachment style and Attachment to God were strongly related. This was only true, however, for subjects reporting an insecure childhood attachment to their mothers. For subjects with secure childhood attachments, there was no significant relationship between adult attachment and God attachment.

Other Measures

No relationship were found between adult attachment and measures of mental health, physical illness or general life satisfaction. Individuals who had a  secure attachment to God, however, reported less anxiety, depression, physical illness and greater life satisfaction.

Overall, attachment style appeared to be reflected in an individual’s beliefs and experience of religion. This study lends support to the compensation hypothesis in relation to parental attachment (the idea that later relationships can compensate for earlier deficit) and also supports the idea that relationships with God can be considered attachments by nature.