role of the father

• Primary attachment usually with mothers, but sometimes both

  • Schaffer and Emerson
  • Found that the majority of babies became attached to their mother first (happens around 7 months)
  • 3% of cases = the father was the first sole object of attachment
  • 27% of cases = father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother
• Secondary attachments with father

  • 75% of the babies studied = attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months
  • this was indicated by the fact that the babies protested when their father walked away (a sign of attachment)
• distinctive role for the father

  • Grossman et al = carried out a longitudinal study looking at parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens
  • found that quality of attachment with the father was less important for adolescent attachment than the quality of attachment with mother
  • => father less important in long-term emotional development
  • But he also found that quality of fathers’ play with babies was related to quality of adolescent attachments
  • Fathers have a different role in attachment = play and stimulation (less to do with emotional care)
• fathers can be primary primary attachment figure

  • Some evidence suggests that when fathers do take on the role of being the main caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers
  • Field = filmed 4 month old babies and found that primary caregiver fathers (like mothers) spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers
  • Isabella et al = these behaviours are related to interactional synchrony and the formation of an emotional attachment
• level of response is most important

  • smiling, imitating and holding babies (interactional synchrony) are behaviours that are important in building a primary (emotional) attachment with a baby
  • => fathers can be the more ‘emotional’ attachment figure
  • The key to attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent
• limitation = confusion over research questions

  • Some psychologists want to understand the role of the father as secondary attachment figures but others are more concerned with fathers as a primary attachment figures
  • The former (eg Grossman) = have tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role
  • The latter (eg Field) = have found that fathers can take on a ‘maternal‘ role
  • Means psychologists cannot easily answer the simple questions: what is the role of the father?
• limitation = conflicting evidence from different methodologies

  • Grossman et al = suggests fathers have a distinct role in children’s development, involving play and stimulation
  • McCallum and Golombock = found that children without a father do not develop differently
  • Means the question of whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered
• counterpoint to conflicting evidence

  • Findings may not be in conflict
  • Fathers may typically take on particular roles in two-parent heterosexual families
  • Other family structures adapt to not have fathers
  • Means that findings may be clear after all = there may be a distinctive role for fathers when present, but families adapt to not having one
• strength = using findings in parenting advice

  • Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home and fathers to focus on work - this may not be the best solution for all families
  • Research on the flexibility of the role of the father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents
  • Means that parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced and parenting decisions made easier
• extra evaluation = bias in this research

  • Preconceptions about how fathers behave are created by discussions about mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviour
  • Stereotypes (eg fathers are more playful) may cause observed bias and lead to inaccurate observations
  • This means that observational studies of fathers may lack validity and conclusions cannot be trusted