The Relationship between Styles of Attachment to God and Forgiveness and Empathy among Female Students in the City of Qom

Abstract

Forgiveness and empathy are factors which are influential in improving the relationships between people, themselves can be affected by various factors in turn. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between the styles of attachment to God and forgiveness and empathy among female students in the city of Qom.

250 students were selected from the city of Qom by cluster sampling. Three questionnaires were used: styles of attachment to God by Kirkpatrick and Rowatt, emotional empathy by Mehrabian and Epstein and forgiveness inventory by Enzeit. Pearson correlation and Regression analysis were used for data analysis.

The style of secure attachment to God had a significantly positive relationship with forgiveness and empathy. Furthermore, the style of avoidant attachment to God and the style of bilateral attachment to God had a significantly negative relationship with forgiveness. In addition, the standard coefficients of all three predictive variables (Secure attachment, bilateral and avoidant to God) were all significant at p=0.05. Assessment and recognition of the style of attachment to God, the students and its relation with forgiveness and empathy can have valuable implications in providing the mental health of the students.

Conclusion: The findings of this research show a connection between the style of attachment to God and forgiveness and empathy, indicate the clarification of attachment to God in students' forgiveness and empathy. Based on the findings, it can be suggested that the theory of attachment to God can be used in psychotherapy.