ULUM (Aug 2019)
Attachment Theory and Child’s Perception of God at 4-6 Ages
Abstract
Attachment theory has been studied in numerous researches since it was put forward by Bowlby who had that all infants were born with biological and emotional needs toward their mothers or caregivers. Since Bowlby’s attachment theory has been taken part in several fields beside Psychology, such as Psychology of Religion in which especially the attachment to God is tried to be understood, Pathology which does give attachment theory wide coverage to explain some mental disorders derived from unsecure attachment. After the birth, the relationship between child and caregiver shapes perspective of child toward religion and God and gives him/her perception of God.The attachment patterns that children gain in their childhood form the attachment to God that they gain afterwards in their life, in that to understand children’s attachment to God, it is substantial to understand the primary attachment patterns of children. Perception of God shapes not only individual’s religious life, but also his/her behaviors toward his/her social environment and individual’s sense of self. For this reason, it is very essential to understand the attachment and how the attachment forms child’s perception of God. The problems of the study are how the attachment occurs, what it is affected by, and how the attachment pattern occurring between child and caregiver shapes child’s perception of God. In this context, the study aims to understand children’s perception of God on their attachment patterns they have acquired as well as providing scientific information for religious educators and religious education institutions. For the study, 5 main and 8 deeper questions aiming to find out children’s perception of God have been asked a study group consisting 13 children at the ages of 4-6 in Yeşil Elma Kinder Garden in Ankara by using interview technique. Interviews have been conducted with one student and one interviewer at a time regarding children’s psychological conditions. This study is a qualitative research, and the collected data have been interpreted by using descriptive analysis. According to findings of the study, it has been noted that the questions were answered with some sentence patterns which they might have heard from their families regarding that the kinder garden is mostly preferred by conservative the families, and that the children have positive-love based God perception, beside that they have a concrete God image accordingly their ages.
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