Attachment Matching and Coparental Interactions in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples Planning Parenthood

The present study focuses upon an early step in the transition to parenthood when partners start to plan their pregnancies. We aimed to understand the determinants of coparenting in a triadic interactive system prior to conception, exploring the role of partners’ attachment histories in their coordination of pre-conception coparenting behaviors. We also wondered how dyadic adjustment of the conjugal couple might interact with partners’ attachment similarity in predicting coparenting behavior. We recruited 111 unmarried lesbian, gay, and heterosexual couples across Italy (N = 49) and Belgium (N = 62), resulting in 222 participants in total (64 gays; 62 lesbians; 96 heterosexuals). For each couple, we computed a Couple Average Attachment Security (CAAS) score and a Couple Difference in Attachment Security (CDAS) score. Our results revealed a significant interaction effect between couples’ average attachment security and their intra-couple differences in attachment security. We found that partners’ average level of attachment security impacted their pre-conception coparental alliance, only when both partners had similar levels of attachment security. Results showed that similar patterns of attachment security between partners predicted the quality of coparental interactions irrespective of whether the potential parenting couple comprised two mothers, two fathers, or a heterosexual mother and father.