Stressful Events, Stress Level, and Psychological Distress: A Moderated Mediation Model With Secure Attachment to God as Moderator

The present study examined a moderated mediation model with secure attachment to God postulated to play a protective moderating role in the mediation pathway from number of stressful events to stress level to psychological distress. Secure attachment to God was postulated to moderate the relationshi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of religion and spirituality 2022-11, Vol.14 (4), p.473-479
Main Authors: Raj, Nathasha S. X. E., Sim, Tick N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attachment
Attachment Behavior
College students
Distress
Experiences (Events)
Female
God
God Concepts
Human
Male
Moderation
Psychological distress
Self-Report
Stress
Stressful events
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The present study examined a moderated mediation model with secure attachment to God postulated to play a protective moderating role in the mediation pathway from number of stressful events to stress level to psychological distress. Secure attachment to God was postulated to moderate the relationship between number of stressful events and stress level and the relationship between stress level and psychological distress. Stress level was assessed at the cumulative (sum) and unit (mean) levels. A total of 165 university students in Singapore self-reported on the various study variables via an online questionnaire. Moderated mediation analysis showed that whether secure attachment to God played a moderating role depended on how stress level was assessed. Specifically, for sum stress level, the mediation pathway emerged but with no moderation by secure attachment to God. Conversely, for mean stress level, the mediation pathway was found to be moderated by secure attachment to God. Specifically, secure attachment to God moderated the relationship between number of stressful events and stress level, with the relationship emerging only for medium and high secure attachment to God. There was also moderation of the relationship between stress level and psychological distress-the relationship emerged for all 3 levels of secure attachment to God, with a stronger relationship at low secure attachment to God and a weaker relationship at high secure attachment to God. A case is made to assess stress level at the mean or unit level, which also demonstrates the protective moderating role of secure attachment to God.
ISSN:1941-1022
1943-1562
DOI:10.1037/rel0000388