Leidy Bibiana Camacho Ordóñez, Adriana Julieth Olaya Torres, María Fernanda Correa Leal, María José Daza Herrán, Fernando Salinas Quiroz
El objetivo de la presente revisión fue resumir la literatura científica sobre la sensibilidad parental y seguridad en el apego en familias con madres lesbianas y padres gays. La revisión se realizó de acuerdo con las directrices PRISMA. La búsqueda de artículos se realizó en las bases de datos electrónicas Google Scholar, EBSCO, Science Direct y Scielo, utilizando términos en inglés y en español. Se seleccionaron los que cumplían con los criterios de inclusión establecidos en el protocolo de esta revisión: a) familias con madres lesbianas y padres gay y sus hijos e hijas como participantes, b) fecha de publicación entre 1995 y 2021, d) en inglés y en español, y e) que utilizaran técnicas cualitativas para la recolección de datos, como la entrevista semiestructurada, o instrumentos como el Procedimiento de la Situación Extraña, el Q-sort de Apego (AQS) y el Q-sort del comportamiento materno (MBQS). De los 1.391.396 registros identificados, se seleccionaron siete para ser incluidos en la presente revisión. Los hallazgos de estos estudios mostraron que, en este tipo de familias, las interacciones son cálidas y sensibles;
así mismo, se identificaron altos niveles de seguridad del apego en las díadas, tanto en las conformadas por madres lesbianas, como en las conformadas por padres gays. Se discuten las direcciones futuras de la investigación en esta área y las implicaciones.
The aim of this study was to describe the scientific literature on parental sensitivity and attachment security in the same-sex families. This inquiry exercise becomes meaningful in the context of multiple family configurations that have emerged in recent decades and the different dynamics, relationships, and interactions in which children are developing. The literature review, however, reveals a gap in knowledge, given the priority interest of the academic world in exploring infant developmental trajectories and quality of care in heterosexual families.
Therefore, the protocol for this literature review, based on the PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), focused on the selection of those articles that met the following inclusion criteria: a) same-parent families and their children as participants, b) publication date between 1995 and 2021, d) in English and Spanish, and e) that used qualitative techniques to data collection (i.e. semistructured interview) or instruments such as the Strange Situation Procedure, the Attachment Q-sort (AQS), and the Maternal Behavior Q-sort (MBQS). The articles searched were found in electronic databases such as Google Scholar, EBSCO, Science Direct and Scielo.
From the 1,391,396 records identified, only seven of them were selected to be included in the current paper. The research results of these studies showed that, although the range of inquiries focused on publications published between 1995 and 2021, most of the studies have been carried out in the last decade in English-speaking countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Only one research published in Spanish and carried out in Mexico was identified, so it is necessary to expand the production of knowledge in the Latin American region and that systematic reviews include as criteria publications in other languages, which were not included in this literature review, but were identified in the search process. The total number of families participating in these seven projects was 280 families who were contacted with the help of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+) community networks, NGOs (non-governmental organization, acronym) as well as adoption and surrogacy agencies.
Methodologically, multiple instruments were applied within the framework of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research designs. The focus was in semi-structured interviews and instruments to observe sensitivity and attachment in naturalistic conditions such as the MBQS and the AQS for the evaluation of parental sensitivity and attachment security. Likewise, the results show interactions are warm and sensitivity in this type of families; high levels of attachment were identified in the dyads, both in lesbian mothers as well as in gay fathers, compared to heterosexual parents. In this sense, the parental sexual orientation does not affect parental sensitivity and, consequently, attachment security; this is enhanced through parenting Interdisciplinaria, 2025, 42(2), 163-184 164 Sensibilidad parental y seguridad en el apego framed by the parents' willingness and quality of response to the diverse needs of their sons and daughters.
This review envisions future directions for research in this field of knowledge. The need to reconstruct the prejudices associated with child rearing and development in same-sex families can be achieved through educational processes that consolidate inclusive perspectives and the recognition of multiple dynamics, interactions, relationships and affections that are woven into parenthood.