Role of Father

• Bowlby (1988)


  Father can fill a role similar to role filled by a mother, but thisnis uncommon. Fathers are more likely to engage in play, and are usually the preferred play companion
• Schaffer and Emerson 1964


  Majority of babies attach to their mothers first (at around 7 months). Attach to father first in only 3% of cases, and both father and mother in 27% of cases. In 75% of infants studied, by 18 months they had formed an attachment to the father
• Field 1978 aim and method


  Role of primary caregiver. Compared behaviour of primary caregiver mothers to primary and secondary caregiver fathers by analysing face-to-face interactions with infants at 4 months of age.
• Field 1978 results


  Secondary caregiver fathers engaged in play and held the baby less, primary caregiver fathers engaged in significantly more smiling and vocalisations etc (comparable to mother's behaviour). These behaviours were related to interactional synchrony and formation of an emotional attachment (Isabella et al 1989)
• Grossman 2002 aim and method


  Longitudinal study of 44 families comparing the role of father's and mother's contribution to their children's attachment experiences at 6, 10 & 16 years
• Grossman 2002 results


  Quality of infant attachment with mother is related to children's attachment in adolescent, father's attachment is less important for long-term development. Quality of father's play related to quality of children attachment in adolescent (suggests their role is to do with play rather than emotional attachment)
• Brown et al 2012


  Investigated father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years. Involvement (greater predictor of secure attachment when fathers were rated as less sensitive) and sensitivity influenced father-child attachment security at age 3 (gender of caregiver isn't crucial for predicting attachment types but the extent of involvement by caregiver is)
• Evaluation strengths (3)

  Societal norms - mothers may feel pressure to stay at home whereas fathers focus on work, research on flexibility of the father's role can offer reassurance to parents (easier to make parenting decisions and reduces anxiety), children with same-sex/single parents don't develop differently (families adapt)
• Evaluation weaknesses (3)

  Father has distinct and different role to mother (some researchers looked at fathers as primary caregivers, while others looked at fathers as secondary caregivers) so no agreement on father's role, Grossmann et al 2002 suggested father's role is play, McCallum & Golombok 2004 found that children without a father don't develop differently (so the role of the father is unanswered)