Attachment to God Inventory

Abstract

The Attachment to God Inventory (AGI), developed by R. Beck and A. McDonald in 2004, is a psychological instrument designed to assess an individual’s affective and cognitive experiences within their relationship with God. Grounded in established attachment theory principles, the AGI operationalizes two primary dimensions of divine attachment: Attachment Anxiety and Attachment Avoidance. The scale utilizes a 28-item self-report format, employing a 7-point Likert scale to capture the respondent’s typical relational style with the divine, thereby extending secular attachment models into the domain of religious experience and spirituality.

Keywords

Attachment to God Inventory, AGI, Attachment Theory, Religious coping, Spiritual assessment, Attachment Anxiety, Attachment Avoidance, Psychology of religion, Beck and McDonald (2004), Divine relationship.

Authors

R. Beck, A. McDonald

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Attachment to God Inventory is to provide a reliable and valid measure for researchers and clinicians studying the interface between psychology and religion. Specifically, the AGI aims to quantify the quality of the perceived relationship an individual maintains with God, viewing this relationship through the lens of established interpersonal attachment patterns, which influence behavior and emotional regulation.

The scale helps differentiate between individuals who exhibit anxious patterns (characterized by worry, fear of rejection, and craving reassurance) and those who exhibit avoidant patterns (characterized by discomfort with intimacy, emotional distance, and excessive self-reliance) in their spiritual lives. By quantifying these dimensions, the AGI facilitates the study of how different attachment styles influence religious coping mechanisms, mental health outcomes, and overall spiritual well-being.

Construct

The AGI measures the construct of Attachment to God, which posits that the cognitive and emotional frameworks developed in early human relationships (as described by attachment theory) are often applied to one’s relationship with a divine figure. This construct is inherently two-dimensional, mirroring the framework established in adult attachment research:

• Attachment Anxiety: This dimension reflects hyperactivation strategies, characterized by intense worry about the relationship’s stability, fear of abandonment or rejection by God, and a strong need for reassurance of divine love and presence. High scores indicate preoccupation with the divine relationship.
• Attachment Avoidance: This dimension reflects deactivation strategies, characterized by discomfort with spiritual intimacy, reluctance to depend fully on God, emotional suppression during prayer, and a strong preference for self-reliance in spiritual and life matters. High scores indicate emotional distance from God.

These two subscales are designed to capture the individual’s “working models” of their relationship with the divine, specifically focusing on the internal representation of God as available and responsive (low anxiety) and the self as worthy of divine love (low avoidance).

Validity

The validation of the AGI involved demonstrating both construct validity and discriminant validity. Construct validity was supported by demonstrating that the AGI subscales correlated significantly with measures of related constructs, such as general religious commitment, perceived closeness to God, and self-reported spiritual experiences, in theoretically consistent ways. For instance, high Attachment Anxiety often correlates with emotional distress related to faith.

Furthermore, the AGI demonstrated criterion validity by showing predictable relationships with established measures of general interpersonal attachment styles (e.g., the Experiences in Close Relationships scale), suggesting that the working models applied to human relationships are indeed mirrored in the divine relationship. The clear separation of the Anxiety and Avoidance dimensions through rigorous factor analysis supports the scale’s structural validity, confirming it measures two distinct factors.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the Attachment to God Inventory is typically reported as high, indicating that the items within each subscale reliably measure the intended dimension. In the initial validation study, both the Anxiety and Avoidance subscales demonstrated strong reliability coefficients, generally measured using Cronbach’s Alpha. These coefficients typically exceed .80, which is considered highly acceptable for psychological instruments.

This high level of reliability confirms that the 14 items comprising the Anxiety subscale and the 14 items comprising the Avoidance subscale are homogeneous and consistently measure the respective constructs of worry/reassurance seeking and emotional distance/self-reliance in the spiritual context, ensuring consistent measurement across different populations.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the AGI was confirmed using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, which strongly supported the hypothesized two-factor model. The analysis consistently revealed two distinct, yet potentially correlated, factors corresponding precisely to the Attachment Anxiety and Attachment Avoidance dimensions.

This bifactorial structure aligns directly with contemporary models of adult interpersonal attachment, providing robust empirical evidence that the relationship with God can be conceptualized and measured along these two independent axes. The factor loadings indicated that the designated odd items loaded heavily onto the Anxiety factor, and the designated even items loaded heavily onto the Avoidance factor, confirming the scoring scheme provided by the authors (Beck & McDonald, 2004).

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychometric scale

Format: 28 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1=Disagree Strongly to 7=Agree Strongly)

Language Available: Primarily English (Original version)

Population Group: Adults and adolescents involved in religious practices or holding beliefs in God.

Age Group: Typically 18 years and older, though used in studies involving religious adolescents.

Population Details: The scale is particularly relevant for Christian populations, given the specific terminology used in the items, though it is applicable to research across various monotheistic traditions that conceptualize a personal relationship with the divine.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with statements reflecting their general experience of their relationship with God, focusing on chronic patterns rather than situational feelings.

Keywords

Divine attachment, Spiritual well-being, Religious measures, Psychometrics, Beck, McDonald, Affective spirituality, Relationship with God, Religious experience.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was published in 2004. The original publication note indicates that the content is copyrighted by the Rosemead School of Psychology and is reprinted with permission, suggesting that researchers may need to seek permission from the copyright holder for use, especially in commercial or large-scale research projects. The original PDF describing the scale and its development can be downloaded here: http://www.acu.edu/academics/cas/psychology/documents/beck/Attachment%20to%20God.pdf

Reference’s

Beck, R., & McDonald, A. (2004). Attachment to God: The Attachment to God Inventory, Tests of Working Model Correspondence, and an Exploration of Faith Group Differences. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 32(2), 92–103. Copyright 2004 by Rosemead School of Psychology.

Items of the Attachment to God Inventory

The following statements concern how you feel about your relationship with God. We are interested in how you generally experience your relationship with God, not just in what is happening in that relationship currently. Respond to each statement by indicating how much you agree or disagree with it, using the following scale.

1= Disagree Strongly . 2= Disagree , 3= Disagree Slightly, 4= Neutral /Mixed , 5= Agree Slightly, 6= Agree , 7= Agree Strongly

___1. I worry a lot about my relationship with God.

___2. I just don’t feel a deep need to be close to God.

___3. If I can’t see God working in my life, I get upset or angry.

___4. I am totally dependent upon God for everything in my life.

___5. I am jealous at how God seems to care more for others than for me.

___6. It is uncommon for me to cry when sharing with God.

___7. Sometimes I feel that God loves others more than me.

___8. My experiences with God are very intimate and emotional.

___9. I am jealous at how close some people are to God.

___10. I prefer not to depend too much on God.

___11. I often worry about whether God is pleased with me.

___12. I am uncomfortable being emotional in my communication with God.

___13. Even if I fail, I never question that God is pleased with me.

___14. My prayers to God are often matter-of-fact and not very personal.

___15. Almost daily I feel that my relationship with God goes back and forth from "hot" to “cold."

___16. I am uncomfortable with emotional displays of affection to God.

___17. I fear God does not accept me when I do wrong.

___18. Without God I couldn’t function at all.

___19. I often feel angry with God for not responding to me when I want.

___20. I believe people should not depend on God for things they should do for themselves.

___21. I crave reassurance from God that God loves me.

___22. Daily I discuss all of my problems and concerns with God.

___23. I am jealous when others feel God’s presence when I cannot.

___24. I am uncomfortable allowing God to control every aspect of my life.

___25. I worry a lot about damaging my relationship with God.

___26. My prayers to God are very emotional.

___27. I get upset when I feel God helps others, but forgets about me.

___28. . I let God make most of the decisions in my life.

Scoring Note:

• Anxiety Subscale: Odd items
• Avoidance Subscale: Even items