Role of the Father

• Contradictory evidence


  some researchers claim men are simply not equipped to form an attachment.

  psychologists point to biological evidence which suggests that oestrogen underlies caring behaviour in women and lack of oestrogen in men explains why they're unable to form a close attachment

  other researchers argue fathers act as a playmate
• Grossman et al


  longitudinal study where babies' attachments were studied until they were teenagers. researchers looked at both parents' behaviour and its relationship to quality of baby's later attachments to other people

  quality of baby's attachment with mothers was related to attachments in adolescence.
• How important is role of father in child development?

  research reveals fathers are important and highly valued attachment figures in many families.

  Pederson found more actively involved a 6-month baby had been with their father, the higher the baby scored on infant development scales

  Lamb - cahracteristics of individual fathers are much less important than quality of relationship established, children who have secured, supportive, reciprocal and sensitive relationships with fathers do better on every measure of child development
• Fathers as primary care

  suggest when fathers take on role of main caregiver they adopt behaviours that have in past been associated with mothers

  Field filmed 4-month babies in ftf interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.

  found primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers.
• Strength - research can offer advice to parents

  parents and prospective parents sometimes agonise over decisions like who should take on primary caregiver role. mothers may feel pressured to stay at home as of stereotypical views of mothers and fathers roles

  fathers may also be pressured to focus on work rather than parenting.

  research into role of fathers offers reassuring advice to parents.

  e.g. heterosexual parents can be informed fathers are capable of becoming primary attachment figures

  also lesbian and single-mother families can be informed not having a father doesn't affect a child's development
• Weakness - researchers are interested in different questions

  some psychs want to understand role of fathers as secondary attachment figures. others are more concerned with fathers as primary attachment figure

  former tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mother and having a distinct role
• Weakness - evidence undermines idea of fathers having distinct roles

  Grossman found fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important and distinct role in child's development, involving play and stimulation

  if fathers have a distinctive + important role we would expect children growing up in single-mother and lesbian-parent families would turn out 'different' from those in 2 parent heterosexual families.

  McCallum and Golombok consistently shows these children don't develop differently from children in 2 parent hetero families
• Weakness - research suggests fathers aren't equipped as mothers to provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment

  Hrdy found fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress, compared to mothers.

  results appear to support the biological explanation the lack of oestrogen in men means fathers aren't equipped innately to form close attachment with their children - suggests role of the father is to an extent biologically determined and a fathers; role is restricted as of their makeup, providing further evidence that a father isn't able to provide a sensitive and nurturing type of attachment as they're unable to detect stress in children