Attachment and Mental Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Posttraumatic Growth and Religion as Moderators

• Published in: Religions (Basel, Switzerland ) Vol. 13; no. 5; p. 470
• Main Authors: Dwiwardani, Carissa, Shelton, Andrew J, Oda, Alan Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 23.05.2022
• Subjects: Anxiety; anxious attachment; Attachment (Psychology); Attachment behavior; Avoidance (Psychology); avoidant attachment; Christianity; Coping (Psychology); Coronaviruses; COVID-19; depression; Drug use; Emotional regulation; Emotions; Epidemics; Loneliness; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental illness; Pandemics; Post-traumatic growth; posttraumatic growth; Psychological aspects; Psychological research; Psychopathology; Religion; Spirituality; Stress; Suicides & suicide attempts; United States; United States
• ISSN: 2077-1444; 2077-1444
• DOI: 10.3390/rel13050470

Consistent with the teachings in various religious traditions of finding meaning amidst suffering, we suspected that Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) would have a buffering effect on attachment insecurity and psychosocial outcomes. We examined the effects of anxious and avoidant attachment, PTG, and religion on psychosocial outcomes (i.e., anxiety, depression, and loneliness). Data from 466 participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and a college student sample revealed that PTG served as a moderator between anxious attachment and (a) depression and (b) loneliness, and (c) PTG buffered the relationship between anxious attachment and anxiety to a greater extent among Christians, compared to non-Christians. On the other hand, (a) PTG did not moderate the link between attachment avoidance and depression, (b) PTG exacerbated the relationship between attachment avoidance and anxiety, and (c) PTG buffered the association between attachment avoidance and loneliness for non-Christians, but this link was amplified for Christians. We discuss the findings that PTG interacted with religion and offered protective effects for anxious (but not avoidant) attachment. Factors that may have contributed to the difference between the two attachment styles are discussed, along with implications from cultural-religious and adult attachment frameworks.