Excerpts:

In nondistressed marriages, spouses, as attachment figures, provide each other with a subjective sense of felt security, regulate each other’s affective and physiological states, and facilitate each other’s functioning outside the relationship… [sometimes even] when the marital relationship itself is not very satisfying.

… One way to assist couples in strained marriages is to help them restore the security regulating function of the relationship.

… These findings … suggest that one’s attachment style toward a spouse is affected by current experiences with his or her partner. … One’s chronic attachment style neither guarantees happiness in marriage nor destines oneself to a malfunctioning relationship.

… There is no theoretical reason to assume that attachment-related processes would differ across heterosexual and same-sex couples.

… A basic function of marriage is to regulate spouses’ felt security and that the maintenance of the attachment bond and associated felt security enhances spouses’ physical and psychological functioning. Numerous studies by different research teams in different fields have provided strong support for this argument. Specifically, studies have shown that spouses buffer each other’s stress reactivity, which is associated with protective health benefits.

Journal of Family Theory & Review

Volume2, Issue4, December 2010, Pages 258-279, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2589.2010.00061.x

Emre Selcuk, Vivian Zayas, Cindy Hazan

Abstract

In this article, we investigate marital functioning from an attachment theory perspective. We review empirical evidence showing that, in nondistressed marriages, spouses, as attachment figures, provide each other with a subjective sense of felt security, regulate each other’s affective and physiological states, and facilitate each other’s functioning outside the relationship, especially with respect to exploratory behaviors. These provisions of the attachment bond occur independent of the level of satisfaction experienced in the marriage and may even occur when the marital relationship itself is not very satisfying. In addition, we discuss the role of attachment style in marital functioning. We conclude by suggesting future directions in which an attachment theory perspective may complement existing theory and research in marital relations.