THE MODERATING ROLE OF ATTACHMENT TO GOD ON ATTACHMENT TO PARENTS AND PARENTAL DEATH ANXIETY

Abstract

Religion can serve a terror management function. Majority of research studying religion and death anxiety has been conducted from the perspective of personal death anxiety. In this study, death anxiety related to the death of one’s parents was explored. It was hypothesized that as attachment to parents increased, parental death anxiety would increase as well. Next, whether this association could be moderated by attachment to God was investigated. Data was collected from a sample of university students (n = 108) and analysis was conducted separately for mother and father. Adjusting for variables known to be associated with death anxiety, results supported the first hypothesis. However, the moderating effect of God was significant for mother, but not for father. As attachment to God strengthened, the relationship between attachment to mother and maternal death anxiety weakened. This difference was discussed in view of differences in parental influence on development of young adults’ God concepts.