Working Models of Childhood Attachment and Couple Relationships

Abstract

Previous research has documented connections between adults' working models of childhood attachment relationships and the quality of parent-child relationships, but less attention has been devoted to examining such links for intimate adult relationships. Twenty-seven married couples were given George, Kaplan, and Main's Adult Attachment Interview and each person was rated as either secure or insecure with respect to attachment. Self-report measures of satisfaction with couple communication and marital relations and laboratory observations of couple interactions were collected. Results showed that self-reported marital satisfaction was not related to adult attachment classifications for either husbands or wives. However, observational ratings of couple interaction yielded differences for husbands. As compared to husbands classified as insecure, secure husbands were likely to be in better-functioning couples who engaged in more positive and fewer conflictual behaviors. In addition, couples' joint attachment classifications were related to observed couple behavior. Insecure-secure and secure-secure dyads did not differ, but both groups showed less conflict and were rated as better functioning than were insecure-insecure dyads. These findings suggest that a secure partner may buffer the negative effects of insecure attachment on the marital relationship.