role of the father

• expectations 


  currently an expectation in western cultures that the father should play a greater role in bringing up children than was previously the case
• mothers usual role

  caregiving and nurturing , infants prefer contact with their mothers when they are distressed and need comforting
• fathers usual role

  encourage risk taking, play-mate, infants prefer contact with their fathers when in a positive/playful state
• Schaffer & Emerson - what?

  fathers are much less likely to be the primary attachment figure

  -sole object of attachment , father (3%) , but 27% were the joint 1st object
• Schaffer & Emerson - why?

  due to fathers spending less time on average with their children
• Ross et al (1975)


  number of nappies a father changed was positively correlated to the strength of their attachment , suggests fathers who spend more time with their babies have the strongest attachment to them
• explanation for the role of the father - biological

  oestrogen (the female hormone) underlies caring behaviour, oxytocin - known as the 'tend and befriend' hormone and is released in large amounts after a mother gives birth to aid bonding with the child

  -both hormones are more prevalent in females, suggesting that there are biological reasons why females are more likely to be the primary attachment figure
• explanation for the role of the father - social

  societies expectations of men and women are different , certain gender stereotypes might effect men's behaviour ('feminine' to be sensitive of the needs of others)

  Heermann et all , 1994 - found men are less sensitive to the needs of infants on a variety of scales at every age. But - there's no gender difference in the physiological response to an infant crying
• evaluation 1- supporting

  fathers still play an important role in being the secondary attachment figure

  a lack of sensitivity from fathers can be seen as positive because it encourages child to develop problem solving skills
• evaluation 1- contradicting

  but the findings have been inconsistent - some research investigates the role of the father as a primary attachment figure but other research looks at the father as a secondary figure

  differences in studies = difficult to determine wat the role of the father actually is
• evaluation 1- link back

  evidence suggests role of father isn't as important as role of mother, if fathers did play vital role - would expect children who grow up without a father would be negatively effected - but, McCallum (2004) found that children bought up with single mother/same sex families dint develop any differently to children bought up with both a mother and father - likely fathers do play more of a secondary role which may not be as important as the role of the mother
• evaluation 2-critism 


  research suggesting that mothers play a more important role can be considered as socially sensitive , suggests that children might be disadvantaged if their mother returns to work shortly after giving birth or if they live with a single father
• evaluation 2-support


  but research shows that when a male is primary caregiver - they adopt behaviours more typical of a mother

  e.g Field filmed 4 month babies interacting with PC mother, PC fathers and SC father

  -PC fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their babies compared to SC fathers - key to attachment is therefore the level of responsiveness and not the gender
• conclusion for the role of the father

  men can still form secure attachments with their children (single-male parent families) but research found in 2-parent families where father is the primary caregiver both parents often share the role of primary attachment figure

  =men can be \PAF but biological and social factors discourage it
• economic implications 


  more women go to work so lots of children are cared for outside the home of stay with fathers - Cohn et al, 2014, number of dads who choose to stay at home and care for children has quadrupled over past 25 years = increase is this means parents are able to select the person with the highest salary to return to work (ignoring if mother or father) , long term - more families have more money to spend = strengthening economy