The Role of Attachment to God in Hardiness and Social Self-Esteem of Military Personnel

Beside parental attachment, attachment, including people’s relationship with God, as an evolutionary construct influencing the development process, has been recently taken into consideration. The present study aimed to examine the role of attachment to God in hardiness and social self-esteem of military personnel. 600 personnel of a military unit across the country were selected using stratified random sampling method. They filled out the questionnaires of Attachment to God, Psychological Hardiness and Social Self-Esteem. The results of stepwise regression analysis indicated that components of attachment to God, i.e., secure (61%), ambivalent (3% increase) and avoidance (18% increase), altogether explained 82% of hardiness variables. Moreover, regression coefficients demonstrated that there was a significant negative relationship between anxious-avoidant attachment to God and hardiness (p<0/05) and there was a significant positive correlation between secure attachment to God and hardiness (p<0/05). In addition, anxious-ambivalent attachment to God explained 72% of social self-esteem variables altogether. Moreover, regression coefficients showed that there was a significant negative correlation between anxious-ambivalent attachment to God and hardiness (p<0/001). Secure attachment to God plays an effective role in forming of hardiness and high social self-esteem in personnel.