Role of father

• traditional expectation for fathers to be bread-winners and moms to stay at home + look after children.
• S+E


  • infants form multiple attachments around 10 months
  • 75% formed second attachment to father around 18 months aas evidenced by distress visible when fathers left room
  • suggests fathers can form attachments with child but typically after maternal attachment
• fathers attachment with child often perceived as the play-mate role which stimulates childs excitement
• Field (1978)


  • filmed 4 month old babies and found that primary cg fathers spent more time time smiling + holding babies than secondary cg fathers
  • suggests fathers behaviour to children similar to mothers as they can adopt caring, nurturing traits that are more typical of mothers
• Grossman et al (2002)


  • carried out longitudinal study looking at parents behaviours and its relationship to quality of childrens attachment in their teens
  • found that quality of attachment with father was less important for adolescent attachment than quality of mother attachment
  • but also found that quality of fathers play with babies related to quality of adolescent attachment
  • suggests fathers have distinctive role
• • attachment depends on level on interactions
  • S+E found that attachment developed based on quality of interaction not just amount
  • fathers that more involved in responsive + sensitive caregiving more likely to have stronger attachments with child
• strength- fathers as secondary attachment can be explained through nature


  • Females produce hormone oestrogen which increases sensitivity and care for others
  • males dont produce oestrogen so they may lack this emotional sensitivity
  • implies fathers may not be biologically predisposed to be a pcg
  • shows that attachment differences between mother and father can be reduced to biology
• strength- research can be used in parenting advice

  • Moms were pressured to stay at home due to stereotypes that their attachment is more important than fathers attachment to child
  • but Field (1978) found that men can adopt traits such as emotional nurturing like mothers when raising their child
  • encourages fathers to step up and allows more women to work
  • positive societal implications
• limitation- confusion over research question


  • 'what is the role of the father?' has been interpreted differently by psychologists
  • e.g Grossman looked at the impact of fathers as secondary attachments has on child development whilst Field looked at the role of the father as a pcg
  • the former found that fathers have a distinct role + behave different to mothers whilst the latter found that fathers can adopt a maternal role
  • difficult to conclude what the role of the father actually is as depends on the context
  • suggests research into role of father lacks clarity so questions credibility
• limitation- conflicting evidence

  • Grossman et al (2002) suggests fathers have a distinctive play-mate role in childrens development involving stimulation and play
  • but McCallum + Golombok (2004) found that children raised in single parent/same sex families dont develop drastically different to those raised in more 'conventional' families
  • questions whether fathers have a distinctive role or not and the significance of their role