suggests that fathers can fill a role closely resembling the mothers role but it is uncommon
According to Bowlby a father is more likely to engage in physically active and novel play and is the childs preferred play companion
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
Found that majority of babies attached to the mother first at around 7 months
In 27% of cases it was the mother and the father and in 3% of cases it was solely the father
Additional attachments proceeded in the next months - 75% of cases bonds were formed with fathers by 18 months
Field (1978)
Compared the behaviours of primary caretaker mothers with primary and secondary caretaker fathers
Facetoface interactions were analysed from video footage with infants at 4 months
Secondary caregiver fathers engaged more in game playing and held their infants less
Primary caregiver fathers engaged in significantly more smiling, imitative grimaces and imitative vocalisations which were comparable to mothers behaviour
Grossman et al. (2002)
Conducted a longitudinal study of 44 families comparing the role of fathers and mothers contribution to their children’s attachment experiences at 6, 10 and 16 years
Quality of an infant attachment with mother was related to children’s attachments in adolescent, fathers attachment less important
Therefore fathers may be less important in long term emotionaldevelopment
Found quality of the fathers play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments
This suggests fathers have a different role in attachment, one to do with play and stimulation
Brownetal. (2012)
investigated father involvement, paternalsensitivity and father-child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years
Results - involvement and sensitivity influenced father-child attachment security at age 3
Involvement was a greater predictor of secure attachment when fathers were rated as lesssensitive
Suggests that the gender of a caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types rather than the extent of caregiver involvement