9th Teaching & Education Virtual Conference, Prague

AS WITH PARENTS, SO WITH GOD? RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HUMANISTIC SPIRITUALITY AND PARENTAL AND ADULT ATTACHMENT STYLES

SIMONA KONTRIMIENĖ

Abstract:

Spirituality is a fundamental human drive that facilitates advanced ways of cognizing, therefore it should permeate every educational endeavor. The current study (N = 449) explores the relationships between humanistic spirituality and secure and insecure parental and adult attachment styles as lifelong factors in the etiology of spirituality. Humanistic spirituality was measured by The Humanistic Spirituality Inventory (HSI; Kontrimienė, 2019), which contains three scales: self-actualization, transcendence and ultimate meaning in life. Parental attachment styles were assessed by The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987) along the dimensions of degree of mutual trust, quality of communication and extent of anger and alienation. Adult attachment was measured by The Relationship Questionnaire (RQ; Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991), which comprises four short paragraphs, each describing an attachment pattern (secure, fearful, preoccupied or dismissing) in close adult relationships. The study has found that female participants score higher than males on the overall humanistic spirituality, transcendence and ultimate meaning in life. In addition, for female participants, older age and secure adult attachment serve as significant positive predictors of humanistic spirituality, whereas for male participants spirituality is significantly predicted by secure attachment to the mother (but not the father) and secure adult attachment. Lastly, the effect of secure attachment to the mother on spirituality for female participants is indirect and mediated by secure adult attachment. The results of the study suggest that relationship with the mother serves as a salient factor in the etiology of spirituality such that spiritual development often takes place in accordance with the principle "as with Mother, so with others and so with God," whereby the concept of God formed by a person may be a projection of feelings they have for their mothers and significant others.

Keywords: Humanistic spirituality, self-actualization, transcendence, meaning in life, parental attachment styles, adult attachment styles.