Security and Autonomy within Marriage

Abstract

Intensive interviews with 60 men and women in their first marriages provide data for an examination of propositions derived from attachment theory. The cases were drawn from the Melbourne subsample of an Australian national sample and were equally divided between men and women respondents and the first three stages of the family life cycle. A series of regression analyses, based on respondents' accounts of their parental families, supports the expectation that appropriate parental care contributes to healthy personality development in children and, in turn, to satisfactory marital relationships. These data suggest that respondents construe the patterning of their lives in terms which accord with attachment theory. Furthermore, strong marital relations are indicated as being therapeutic for a partner whose early experiences of care were less than optimal.