Attachment transmission during middle childhood in lesbian, gay, and heterosexual families formed through assisted reproduction

Introduction: Previous research showed that parents’ sexual orientation and child’s method of conception are not associated with parent-child relationship quality. However, parent-child relationship in diverse families formed through assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs) has been rarely framed by attachment theory. Examining child-parent attachment in lesbian, gay, and heterosexual (LGH) ART parent families during middle childhood may provide key information on the functioning of these under-researched families and the mechanisms involved in the transmission of attachment, in a period by which children become able to grasp the meaning of their biological (un)relatedness to their parents and the existence of diverse family forms. The present study aimed at: (1) confronting the distribution of parents’ and children’s attachment patterns in LGH ART parent families with international and national normative data; (2) exploring how parental reflective functioning mediated the intergenerational transmission of attachment in the three diverse ART families during middle childhood. Methods: Sixty lesbian mothers through donor insemination, 50 gay fathers through surrogacy, and 42 heterosexual parents through gamete donation and their children aged 6–12 years participated. Each parent was administered the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; also coded for reflective functioning), while each child was administered the Friends and Family Interview (FFI). Results: No differences were found both in the AAI and FFI attachment distributions compared to normative data. Furthermore, across the three family types, parental reflective functioning significantly mediated the relation between parents’ AAI coherence of mind and child’s FFI attachment security. Finally, parents’ coherence of mind also had a direct influence on child’s attachment security. Discussion: The results provide unique insights for understanding and working with diverse ART families in middle childhood. Also, they confirm previous literature, showing that parents with greater coherence of mind reported a higher ability to reflect and give meaning to their own parents’ behavior, which, in turn, was associated with greater child’s attachment security, in terms of searching for a safe haven in case of distress and secure base from which to explore their environment.