Attachment Style, Spirituality, and Compassionate Love Among Mental Health Professionals

The present study examined the relationships among attachment style, spirituality, and the expression of compassionate love by licensed mental health professionals. Specifically, this study sought to examine whether attachment styles and spirituality would predict compassionate love for close others, a specific close other, and strangers and humanity. The sample of 156 (47 male, 109 female) mental health professionals completed online surveys. As expected, results indicated that greater secure attachment and greater spirituality related to greater expression of compassionate love for a specific other. Contrary to our hypotheses, greater secure attachment, but not spirituality, related to greater expression of compassionate love for close others, and neither predictor was related to compassionate love for strangers. We explored the implications of the findings and directions for future research.