The Psychology of Youth Faith Formation: A Care-giving Faith?

What is it about?

The author explores the four different ways faith is developed among young people with the aim of articulating what inspires an attachment behaviour towards God. The main bulk of the argument in the paper was that youth faith experience precipitates from a ‘behavioural system’ known as the ‘attachment system’. This sense of attachment is said to resonate with most of us, and, as a result we often relate to people in our lives as relational figures due to the internal model of self and others located in our attachment system. This model of seeing ourselves and others is simply the database from where we explore close relationships with others and engage with the world around us. The author draws the attention of the reader to how this same model of self is employed for initiating attachment towards God in times emotional abandonment with a primary caregiver and when their is no human relational figure to play the role of an attachment figure. Interviews were conducted with quite a number of young people between the ages of 18 and 35, many of whom had experienced difficulties relating with their primary caregivers – mostly their parents – which had profound effect on how they perceive and desire others.

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Why is it important?

The stories of the young people shared in the article show how experiences with primary caregivers establish the model for exploring self and desiring God. This model is seen regulating the attachment behaviours of the young people in the study, as they sought a relationship that would heal the wounds of their past and attend to their need for care and quality attachment. The study shows that when young people are deprived of love and care they are more likely to search for it elsewhere. Some find it in their romantic partner, school, workplace, church, fraternity, friends, or in any object or person that they think can a reliable source of support to them. Some end up finding this advantage in God. They are in a relationship with God because He is perceived to be a caring relational Figure who will fill the void of their past with His radiant love and presence. As a result, they develop what is called ‘a care-giving faith’ as they draw closer to God as their transcendent caregiver in the place of a physical or human caregiver. A care-giving faith is a pattern of youth attachment behaviour towards God in which the young person emphasises the importance of needing care and emotional support in their faith experience. Their need for caregiving is justified because of the difficult experiences they had with their earthly parents and primary caregivers.

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