Previous research has demonstrated that cooperation and support between parents, called the parental alliance, is an important predictor of parent and child well-being. Consequently, it is important to understand what factors promote the formation of a strong parental alliance. Because of research on the impact of attachment security on individuals' abilities to depend and rely on others and to appropriately manage conflict, partner attachment is a potential predictor of the parental alliance, with insecure attachment negatively weakening the parental alliance. This study analyzed data from 321 couples to examine the relationship between partner attachment and the parental alliance. Using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, results indicated that attachment was significantly associated with parental alliance scores for both husbands and wives; specifically, higher anxious attachment for wives and for husbands significantly predicted decreased parental cooperation and increased triangulation and conflict. Likewise, avoidant attachment for wives and for husbands was significantly predictive of decreased cooperation and increased triangulation and conflict. These findings point to the utility of marital therapy focusing on increasing attachment as a way to strengthen parental attachment.

La relation conjugale a longtemps été étudiée afin de mieux comprendre les mécanismes impliqués entre la dyade parentale et leur influence sur le développement socio –affectif de l’enfant. Cependant, le concept de l’alliance parentale en est un plus proximal permettant de qualifier le niveau de coopération et d’engagement au niveau de l’éducation de l’enfant. Cette relation peut avoir une influence déterminante sur la dyade père-enfant, notamment en ce qui a trait à la relation d’activation. La présente étude vise à vérifier la présence d’un lien entre l’engagement paternel dans sa fonction d’ouverture au monde et le niveau d’activation de l’enfant âgé entre 12 et 18 mois et à vérifier si l’alliance parentale a un rôle modérateur sur ce lien. Des données sont recueillies auprès de 58 dyades père-enfant. Les résultats montrent que l’engagement paternel dans sa fonction d’ouverture au monde n’est pas lié au niveau d’activation de l’enfant. De plus, l’alliance parentale ne modère pas ce lien. Les résultats présentent néanmoins des différences en fonction du sexe de l’enfant, soit que les pères s’engagent davantage auprès de leur fille, et que les garçons sont activés de manière plus optimale. / The conjugal relationship between parents has been studied profusely as to better understand its influence on the socio-affective development of the child. However, a better proxy to conceptualise the level of cooperation and the involvement of the parents in the education of the child is the parental alliance. This alliance could have an important influence on the father-child dyad, or more specifically the activation relationship. The present study is designed to verify the existence of a link between the paternal involvement in regard to its function of openness to the world and the activation score of the child, aged from 12 to 18 months, as well as the possible moderator effect of the parental alliance on this link. Data was collected among 58 father-child dyads. Results show no link between father involvement in its function of openness to the world and the activation score. Furthermore, the parental alliance does not moderate this link. The results also show some differences between boys and girls. Fathers are more engaged with their daughter and boys are more optimally activated than girls.