Presenters: Michael Guynn, Dixie State University, Psychology
Authors: Michael J. Guynn, Sarah Prince, Danelle Larson-Rife
Faculty Advisor: Danelle Larson-Rife, Dixie State University, Psychology
Institution: Dixie State University
The parent child attachment has a lasting impact on all future close relationships. Parents who are religious seek to follow the guidance of their religion and God in raising their children which may influence their parenting and attachment. There is evidence people create attachment relationships with God as well. People use God to regulate their emotions much like children rely on parents for emotion regulation (Parenteau et al., 2019). When people perceive God as distant and uncaring they had higher levels of depression and hopelessness while those who saw God as punishing or dominant felt higher levels of guilt (Braam et al., 2008). Parents who strive to fulfill their duty to God and follow religious doctrine may experience stress and exert excessive control over their children. Excessive control over children, or intrusive parenting, forfeits the child’s autonomy to appease the parents. Parents who are intrusive are overinvolved, use a high degree of psychological control, are overly sensitive to failures on the part of the child (Cheung et al., 2016), and experience excessive embarrassment or stress when the child does not meet their expectations (Keil & Buss, 2013). Caregivers who respond inconsistently or reject children’s distress promote insecure attachment such as anxious-ambivalent and avoidant (Kochanska, 2001; Sroufe, 2005). Furthermore, mothers preoccupied with high levels of anxiety and distress, a characteristic of insecure attachment, are more likely to impose intrusive parenting techniques (Adam, Gunnar, & Tanaka, 2004). Adults in Utah reported their parent-child attachment styles, their parents’ intrusive parenting and their parents’ religiosity (Dyer, Goodman, & Hardy, 2020). It is hypothesized religiosity and intrusive parenting are associated with insecure attachment in Utah residents. Results from regression analysis will be presented.