This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Feeling secure in a relationship is not only about how people connect with their partners today. It may also depend on how confident they are that the relationship will continue into the future.
Feelings of closeness, trust and connection, together with a sense that the relationship is stable and has a future, can shape how people experience their romantic relationships. For people with diverse sexual identities, these expectations may be shaped not only by their relationship but also by the wider social environment. Concerns about whether a relationship will be accepted by family and society, for example, may affect how secure people feel about maintaining their relationships over time.
Assistant professor Fan Yang from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences at Waseda University in Japan and Zichen Zhai from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at Nagoya University in Japan investigated whether gay and heterosexual men differ in how they experience romantic attachment and whether perceived relationship stability would help explain these differences. The study was published online in the journal BMC Psychology on Sept. 16, 2026. The researchers focused on two aspects of attachment: anxiety, which can involve worrying about being abandoned or being unsure about a partner's feelings, and avoidance, which can involve discomfort with emotional closeness or relying on a partner.
"Our findings highlight the critical role of relationship stability in shaping adult attachment patterns, particularly within sexual minority populations," says Yang. The researchers collected questionnaire data from 603 men ages 20–29 living in Shanghai, China. The participants included 303 gay men and 300 heterosexual men.
They completed questionnaires measuring attachment anxiety and avoidance, perceived romantic relationship stability and their romantic relationship history. Among the 510 participants who had experienced at least one romantic relationship, the researchers assessed perceived relationship stability by asking how stable they considered their romantic relationships to be, with responses ranging from "very unstable" to "very stable." Attachment anxiety and avoidance were assessed using a nine-item questionnaire designed to measure these two dimensions of romantic attachment. The findings showed that gay men reported higher levels of both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance than heterosexual men.
These differences remained after accounting for economic and occupational status. The researchers found little difference between gay and heterosexual men in their relationship histories. The groups reported similar numbers of romantic relationships and similar durations for their shortest relationships.
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