Attachment to God,Images of God,and Psychological Distress in a Nationwide Sample of Presbyterians

Drawing broadly on insights from attachment theory, the present study outlines a series of theoretical arguments linking styles of attachment to God, perceptions of the nature of God (i.e., God imagery), and stressful life events with psychological distress. Main effects and potential stress-moderator effects are then evaluated using data from a nationwide sample of elders and rank-and-file members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Key findings indicate that secure attachment to God is inversely associated with distress, whereas both anxious attachment to God and stressful life events are positively related to distress. Once variations in patterns of attachment to God are controlled, there are no net effects of God imagery on levels of distress. There is only modest support for the hypothesis that God images moderate the effects of stressful life events on psychological distress, but no stress-moderator effects were found for attachment to God. Study limitations are identified, and findings are discussed in terms of their implications for religion-health research, as well as recent extensions of attachment theory.     

Global Maladaptive Schemas, Negative Life Events, and Psychological Distress

The relationship between maladaptive self-schemas, negative life events, and psychological distress was assessed. The model tested was based on Young's (J. Young, 1990) diathesis–stress conceptualization of maladaptive schemas, which are believed to represent the cognitive diathesis underlying Axis II personality pathology. Young's model predicts that schemas are chronically activated in individuals with maladaptive schemas. Therefore, the experience of salient negative life events is less likely to exacerbate the level of distress experienced by those having maladaptive schemas. A nonclinical sample (N = 93) was assessed using the Schema Questionnaire (SQ), a measure of maladaptive self-schemas, a measure of negative life events, and several measures of psychological distress. Support was found for this prediction indicated by a Schema × Negative Life Events interaction in which the distress level of High SQ participants was less affected by negative life events compared to Low SQ participants.     

Stressful Life Events and Distress in Breast Cancer: A 5-Years Follow-Up

Background/ObjectiveEnvironmental factors such as psychosocial stress have demonstrated to have an impact on the breast cancer (BC) course. This study aims to explore the impact of psychotherapy and stressful life events (SLE) on BC survivors’ illness trajectories.Method68 women with BC underwent Positive Psychotherapy or Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management and 37 patients were included as a control group. The effects of distress reduction and SLE on their 5-year recurrence were investigated. Additional analyses examined the effect of receiving vs. not receiving psychotherapy and of the type of therapy on survival and disease-free interval, DFI.ResultsA one-point decrease of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) after psychotherapy predicted a lower risk of 5-year recurrence, OR = 0.84, p = .037, 95% CI = 0.71-0.99). Also, a one point-increase in the number threatening SLE (OR = 1.92; p = .028, 95% CI = 1.07-3.43) was related to higher 5-year recurrence.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the necessity of studying not only a given situation (i.e., psychotherapy, SLE) but its specific impact on individuals.     

The Contributions of Political Life Events to Psychological Distress Among South African

The psychological consequences of adverse political experiences among South African youth were studied in a sample of 540 black and white adolescents from two age groups, evenly divided by gender. Three questionnaires were administered, measuring exposure to political life events, the presence of symptoms of psychopathology, and stressful personal life events during the previous 5 years. The first hypothesis, predicting a substantial contribution of stressful political experiences to psychopathology, was strongly supported; when stressful personal life events were partialed out, a significant effect for political life events remained both on general distress and symptomatology indices. The second hypothesis of a linear relation between exposure to political life events and severity of distress was also confirmed. The findings underscore the enduring impact on children's mental health of past apartheid policies in South Africa specifically, and adverse political environments in general.     

Attachment to God,Tenure, Race,and Participation in Congregational Life

The vitality of religious congregations is dependent on how effectively they attract congregants and mobilize participation, and people are more likely to participate when they share similar characteristics with other congregants. This study suggests attachment to God is a fundamental “behavioral and intrapersonal characteristic” which distinguishes participants from one another, contributing to varying levels of participation in congregational and religious life beyond service attendance. Using a national sample, we test several hypotheses related to this theoretical claim. Findings suggest that: (1) secure attachment to God is positively associated with congregational participation, (2) anxious and avoidant attachment are negatively associated with participation, (3) these relationships are moderated by length of time attending a particular congregation, and (4) secure attachment is associated with higher levels of participation in congregational life for blacks than it is for whites. By demonstrating a link between attachment to God and participation in congregational and religious life, this study affirms that intrapersonal characteristics structure the dynamics of religious congregations.     

Lifetime Trauma,Prayer, and Psychological Distress in Late Life

The purpose of this study is to see whether prayer helps older people cope more effectively with the adverse effects of lifetime trauma. Data from a nationwide survey of older adults reveal that the size of the relationship between traumatic events and depressive symptoms is reduced for older people who believe that only God knows when it is best to answer a prayer and when they believe that only God knows the best way to answer it. The findings further reveal that these beliefs about prayer outcomes are especially likely to offset the effects of traumatic events that arose during childhood.     

Psychological Hardiness and Adjustment to Life Events in Adulthood

Data were collected from 88 persons who had lost their jobs and 227 persons whose youngest child had left home to explore the impact of psychological hardiness on personal distress, adjustment, and coping strategies. Analyses controlling for numerous sociodemographic factors as well as NEO Neuroticism and Extroversion suggested that the interaction between overall hardiness and the experience of differential life events influenced the use of planful problem solving and positive reappraisal as coping mechanisms, as well as influencing levels of positive affect. In addition, a main effect for overall hardiness on several coping strategies, positive affect, and life satisfaction was obtained. Findings also suggested that job loss was a more stressful experience for adults in this study than was the empty nest. These data indicate that hardiness may mediate responses to life events that differ in terms of their predictability and anticipatory nature.     

Attachment Orientations: Predicting Psychological Distress in German and Turkish Samples

This study examined the relationship between attachment orientations and psychological distress, as well as cultural moderation in this relationship, among 241 university students from Germany and Turkey. Attachment orientations predicted the elevation of psychological distress in both samples. Attachment anxiety in the German sample and attachment avoidance in the Turkish sample showed stronger association with the elevation in psychological distress. The results and potential implications for counseling research and practice are discussed.     

The Role of Attachment in Immigrant Sociocultural Adaptation and Psychological Distress

The study extends recent research on the link between attachment security and the sociocultural and psychological adaptation of immigrants. It was hypothesised that attachment style would moderate the effects of sociocultural adaptation difficulties on psychological distress and the relationship between attachment style and immigrant background variables was explored. The study was correlational and questionnaire‐based, including a sample of 172 Brazilian immigrants living in the UK. According to the findings, secure and dismissing attachment styles moderated the effects of sociocultural adaptation difficulties on psychological distress. Preoccupied attachment style moderated the effects of previous immigration experience on psychological distress and the effects of duration of stay in the UK on concerns over terrorism. Future studies should employ longitudinal designs and include a variety of immigrant groups. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stressful Life Events,Psychopathology, and Adolescent Suicide: A Case Control Study

The relationship between stressful life events and adolescent suicide was assessed in 67 adolescent suicide victims and 67 matched community controls. In the year before death, suicide completers were more likely to have experienced: (1) interpersonal conflict with parents and with boy/girlfriends, (2) disruption of a romantic attachment, (3) legal or disciplinary problems. Legal or disciplinary problems were more commonly associated with suicide in conduct and substance abuse disordered youth. Interpersonal loss was more commonly associated with suicide in substance abuse as well. Even after controlling for psychopathology, legal and disciplinary problems in the past year were associated with an increased risk of suicide.     

God Attachment,Mother Attachment,and Father Attachment in Early and Middle Adolescence

The present study examined the interplay of attachment to God, attachment to mother, and attachment to father with respect to adjustment (hope, self-esteem, depression) for 130 early and 106 middle adolescents in Singapore. Results showed that the parental attachments were generally linked (in expected directions) to adjustment. God attachment, however, had unique results. At the bivariate level, God attachment was only linked to early adolescents’ self-esteem. When considered together with parental attachments (including interactions), God attachment did not emerge as the key moderator in attachment interactions and yielded some unexpected results (e.g., being positively linked to depression). These results are discussed viz-a-viz the secure base and safe haven functions that God and parental attachments may play during adolescence.     

Attachment to God,Spiritual Coping,and Alcohol Use

We examined the effect of emotional God attachment on undergraduates' alcohol use generally and for coping purposes and whether spiritual coping styles (collaborative, deferring, and self-directing) drive this effect. As hypothesized, people who feel secure in their emotional relationship with God use significantly more deferring, more collaborative, and less self-directing coping styles than people who feel anxious-ambivalent in their emotional relationship to God. Anxious-ambivalents use significantly more deferring, more collaborative, and less self-directing coping than people who feel disengaged from God (avoidants). Secures use alcohol significantly less than anxious-ambivalents, who use alcohol significantly less than avoidants. The effect of God attachment on general alcohol use was mediated by the use of self-directing (but not deferring or collaborative) spiritual coping style.     

Secure Attachment to God Uniquely Linked to Psychological Health in a National,Random Sample of American Adults

Relationships between religiousness and psychological health are well established. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether perceived relationship with God (i.e., attachment to God) or how people view God (i.e., image of God) account for variation in psychological distress and well-being. Statistical relationships between two attachment to God dimensions (avoidance, anxiety), two dimensions of God image (forgiving, wrathful), and general psychological well-being were investigated in a convenience sample (Study 1) and nationally representative sample (Study 2) of American adults who expressed belief in God or a higher power. In both studies, secure attachment to God (i.e., lower avoidance, lower anxiety) and religious service attendance were positively correlated with self-reported psychological well-being. Hierarchical regressions indicated that attachment to God dimensions account for unique variability in reported mental health even after religious service attendance, prayer frequency, God image and demographic variables were statistically controlled. Negligible associations were found between images of God as forgiving or wrathful and psychological well-being. Perceived relationship with God appears to be an important factor in the connection between religiousness and psychological health.     

Timing of Stressful Life Events Affects Stability and Change of Neuroticism

Neuroticism is a predictor of many health problems. To study the determinants of within‐subject change in neuroticism, three hypotheses were tested: (i) subjects who experienced stressful life events (SLEs) show an increase in neuroticism; (ii) high baseline neuroticism moderated this effect; and (iii) recent SLEs had a greater impact on neuroticism than distant SLEs. Data came from the Finnish Twin Cohort. Neuroticism data were collected in 1975 and 1981 and SLEs data in 1981 (n = 21 085). By entering baseline neuroticism as a predictor for neuroticism at follow‐up, the outcome measure was change in neuroticism. Changes in neuroticism were predicted from SLE indices or their interaction with baseline neuroticism. Timing of SLEs was taken into account by distinguishing recent from distant SLEs. To control for confounding by shared genes and environments, both within‐twin pair and between‐twin pair effects were tested for monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs separately. Neuroticism's six‐year stability was high (r = .58, p < .001). Exposure to SLEs modestly increased neuroticism (βs > .55, ps < .001), unconfounded by shared genes. This effect was not moderated by high baseline neuroticism. Recent SLEs (.09 < βs < .15) had more impact than distant SLEs (.03 < βs < .11; ps < .01). In conclusion, the findings strongly supported a model of environmentally driven SLEs causing dynamic fluctuations around a person's set point of neuroticism. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Role of Stressful Life Events in Homelessness: An Intragroup Analysis

The present paper describes the results of an analysis of individual differences—using multidimensional strategies—in stressful life event data collected from a representative sample of homeless people (N = 289) in Madrid, Spain, which revealed the existence of three subgroups within the sample. Each subgroup can be defined by the following differentiating characteristics: The first cluster (n = 124) was characterized by economic problems; the second (n = 80) by health problems, alcohol abuse, and death of one or both parents; and the third cluster (n = 50) by an accumulation of stressful life in childhood events and alcohol abuse. In order to define the subgroups, the article also examines the differences found in other variables such as total duration of homelessness, mental and physical health status, and social support availability, among others. The existence of such subgroups within the homeless population emphasizes the importance of designing different interventions for each of these groups, adapted to their diverse needs.     

On the Calamity Theory of Growth: The Relationship Between Stressful Life Events and Changes in Identity Over Time

The purpose of the current study was to provide evidence for a relationship between stressful life events and changes in identity over time. Previous research has indicated that individuals retrospectively report a variety of life events to be precursors to identity changes. The current study examined the relationship between the extent to which individuals reported stressful life events to occur in their lives and subsequent changes in identity over an interval of approximately five months in a sample of adult women. It was hypothesized that stressful life events would predict increases in identity exploration over time, along with decreases in identity commitment. The results indicated that the hypotheses were supported. The findings are discussed in terms of the current literature on identity development in adulthood.     

Forgiveness by God, Forgiveness of Others, and Psychological Well-Being in Late Life

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among forgiveness by God, forgiveness of others, and psychological well–being with data provided by a nationwide survey of older adults. Three main findings emerge from the analyses. First, the data suggest that forgiving others tends to enhance psychological well–being, and these salubrious effects are greater than those associated with forgiveness by God. Second, the findings indicate that how older people go about forgiving others is important: older adults who require transgressors to perform acts of contrition experience more psychological distress than those who forgive unconditionally. Third, the results reveal that forgiveness by God may be involved in this process because older people who feel they are forgiven by God are less likely to expect transgressors to perform acts of contrition.     

Links Between Stressful Life Events and Proactive and Reactive Functions of Aggression

Recently, more attention has been devoted to understanding how stressful life events might relate to proactive and reactive aggression. Findings suggest that stressful life events are more strongly linked to reactive, than proactive, aggression; however, it is unclear whether the impact of stressful life events on proactive and reactive aggression might vary as a function of the level of exposure to or type of stressful life event. The current study examined how level of exposure to stressful life events (i.e., witnessed, experienced, and learned about) and stressful life event types (i.e., war zone exposure, sexual victimization, interpersonal violence, and other trauma exposure) related to proactive and reactive aggression. The sample was comprised of 500 undergraduate students (M = 18.96, SD = 1.22, 49.6% male) recruited from a Midwestern university. Findings indicated that all three levels of stressful life event exposure (i.e., experienced, witnesses, and learned) were associated with reactive aggression; however, only witnessed stressful life events were associated with proactive aggression. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.