Parental Secure Base Support and Child Secure Base Use in Mexican Same-Sex Families

Authors

  • Fernando Salinas-Quiroz
    Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
  • Fabiola Rodríguez-Sánchez
    Academic Area 3, National Pedagogic University, Mexico City, Mexico
  • Verónica Cambón
    Institute of Psychology, Education and Human Development, University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay
  • Paola Silva
    Institute of Psychology, Education and Human Development, University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay
  • Pedro Alexandre Costa
    William James Center for Research, Instituto Universitário de Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Antonio Martínez
    The National Center for the Evaluation of Higher Education (CENEVAL), Mexico City, Mexico

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine whether the well-documented link between heterosexual parents’ secure base support (i.e., sensitivity) and child secure base behavior (i.e., security) was present among Mexican same-sex families with 1-to 6-year-old-children. The sample included 22 child-caregiver dyads from four lesbian and four gay families. Four trained independent observers used the q-sort methodology (Maternal Behavior Q-set/Mother Behavior with Preschoolers Q-set and Attachment Q-set) to describe parents’ and children’s behavior, respectively. A robust regression model by Siegel method for predicting security with sensitivity as regressor was statistically significant for the whole sample with a statistical power of .89, consistent with the existing evidence in studies with different and same-sex families. Both sensitivity and attachment security are fundamentally relational constructs, not caregiver/child’s traits; they are relationship specific, as the results of the regression analysis showed. Despite the sample size, our findings prove attachment theory as a useful theoretical framework to study caregiver-child interactions no matter parents’ sexual orientation neither the family structure.