By Audrey Chu
This blog is a summary of our published article:
Bigras, N., Rosen, N. O., Dubé, J. P., Daspe, M.-E., Bosisio, M., Peloquin, K., & Bergeron, S. (2025). Attachment insecurity mediates the associations between childhood trauma and duration of emotions during a laboratory-based sexual conflict discussion among couples. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 54(4), 1509–1525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03120-7
Childhood trauma and attachment insecurity?
Childhood trauma can affect the way people handle emotions and relationships, which can make it harder for couples to work through challenges like sexual disagreements. These kinds of sexual conflicts are stressful for couples and may bring out stronger negative feelings for both partners.
Sexual conflicts can also bring up attachment insecurities, such as worrying about rejection or feeling uneasy with intimacy, especially for people who have been through trauma. To examine whether attachment insecurities in adulthood explain why childhood trauma has such an impact on how couples deal with sexual conflicts, this study looked at the two dimensions of attachment insecurity in adulthood —attachment anxiety and avoidance.
- Attachment anxiety refers to fear of rejection and feeling unworthy of love, it may be represented through hyperactivation strategies (e.g., excessive demands, stronger manifestations of negative emotions).
- Attachment avoidance involves discomfort regarding closeness and intimacy; it may include deactivating strategies (e.g., inhibiting distress to maintain emotional distance from one’s partner).
What did we want to know?
We wanted to understand how childhood trauma affects the way couples handle sexual conflicts, especially how emotions play out in the moment. We also looked at whether attachment insecurities explain these links.
What did we do?
We recruited a sample of 151 couples. The participants filled out an initial online survey the week before they came into the lab to complete a recorded discussion task about their biggest sexual conflict.
After their discussion, they completed their second survey and a task involving rating their emotions as well as their partners while watching the recorded videos of their discussion.
What did we find?
Partners who experienced higher levels of childhood trauma tended to experience fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions during their sexual conflict discussion. Their experience of positive feelings was shorter and less intense, while their negative emotional experiences were more intense and were longer in duration.
Childhood trauma was linked to higher attachment anxiety, which acted as a pathway to these emotional difficulties: greater anxiety was associated with more intense and longer-lasting negative emotions, as well as briefer positive emotions for both the individual and, in some cases, their partner.
Although avoidance was tied to showing and reporting fewer positive emotions, there was no link found between trauma and avoidance.
The main takeaway from this research is that childhood trauma contributes to the regulation of emotions during sexual conflicts, especially regarding attachment anxiety and how it sustains negative emotions and dampens positive ones.
What are the take-aways?
Childhood trauma can make it harder to manage emotions in sexual conflicts, mainly by fueling attachment anxiety.
This shows why it’s important to consider trauma and attachment issues when helping couples navigate sensitive topics like sex.
References
[1] Bigras, N., Rosen, N. O., Dubé, J. P., Daspe, M.-E., Bosisio, M., Peloquin, K., & Bergeron, S. (2025). Attachment insecurity mediates the associations between childhood trauma and duration of emotions during a laboratory-based sexual conflict discussion among couples. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 54(4), 1509–1525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03120-7
