Findings vary according to methods used

• P- a further limitation of the research inti The role of the father is that findings vary according to the method used
• E- longitudinal studies such as Grossman et Al (2002) have suggested that father as secondary attachment figure have an important and distinct role in their child’s development, involving play and stimulation
• E- however if fathers have a distinctive and important role we would expect that children growing up in single mother and lesbian parent families would turn out in some way different from those in two parent heterosexual families McCallum and Golombook 2004 have found that children do not develop differently from children in two parent heterosexual families
• L- this means that the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered