Building a bridge between attachment and religious coping: tests of moderators and mediators

Abstract

Coping studies show that people often involve God in coping. Attachment studies suggest this should be particularly true for people with an insecure history, who use God as a surrogate figure to regulate distress (compensation hypothesis). The present questionnaire study is the first investigation of perceived attachment history and religious coping. It was tested if an insecure history is linked to involving God in coping, if parental religiousness moderates the association, and if religious coping mediates the link between an insecure history and compensatory religiosity characteristics. Results from 197 participants, from different religious and non-religious groups in the central parts of Sweden, supported the compensation hypothesis (i.e., an insecure history was linked to involving God). This support was moderated by parental religiousness. At low parental religiousness, religious coping mediated the association between an insecure history and compensatory religiosity characteristics. The Discussion proposes further cross-fertilization of attachment and religious coping.