Role of the father

• What is the difference between a primary caregiver and primary attachment figure?

  • A primary caregiver is who the infant spends the most time with and cares for its needs, whereas a primary attachment figure is whom the baby has the strongest emotional attachment to
  • Often same person will fulfil both roles but not always
• What is attachment to fathers like?

  • Schaffer and Emerson's research found majority of babies at around 7 months first became attached to their mothers, only 3% of cases had the father as the first object of attachment
  • Fathers go on to become important attachment figures - 75% of babies studies by Schaffer and Emerson protested when their fathers walked away (a sign of attachment) by 18 months
• What is the role of the father in children's development?

  • Grossman et al. (2002)'s longitudinal study looked at parents' behaviour and how it affected the quality of the baby's later attachments to other people
  • Found that it was the quality of a baby's attachment with MOTHERS that was related to attachments in adolescence
  • Suggests that attachment to fathers is less important than mothers
• How did Grossman et al. (2002) find a distinctive role for fathers?

  • Found that the quality of father's play with the infant was different to the mothers; theirs was more to do with play and stimulation rather than emotional development
• What evidence suggests that fathers can act as primary caregivers?

  • Field (1978) filmed face-to-face interactions between 4 month old babies and primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers, and primary caregiver fathers
  • Primary caregiver fathers and mothers spent more time smiling, imitating, and holding babies (reciprocity and interactional synchrony) than secondary caregiver father
  • Shows fathers have the potential to be emotion-focused primary caregivers
• What is one strength of research into the role of the father?

  • Real-world application: parents and prospective parents commonly agonise over decisions regarding who should take on the primary caregiver role e.g. mothers may feel pressured to stay at home due to stereotypes of mothers' being PCGs
  • Research into the role of the father can reassure parents e.g. heterosexual parents can understand that fathers are capable of becoming PCGs and lesbian parents or single mothers can be informed that no father figure doesn't affect a child's development
  • High value research as it reduces parental anxiety about the role of the father
• What is one limitation of research into the role of the father?

  • Lack of clarity over research questions: different researchers are interested in different research questions
  • Some attempt to understand the role of fathers as secondary attachment figures, seeing their role as distinct to that of the mother
  • Others are more concerned with fathers as primary attachment figures, finding that fathers can take on a 'maternal' role
  • Makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as to what the role of the father is as there are more specific roles
• What is another limitation of research into the role of the father?

  • Conflicting evidence: Grossmann et al (2002)'s findings have suggested that fathers as secondary attachment figures have distinct and important roles in child development involving play and stimulation
  • McCallum and Golombok (2004) found that children who grew up in single-mother and lesbian-parent families do not develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families
  • Question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered
• What is another limitation of research into the role of the father?

  • Socially sensitive: Later abnormalities in children such as intellectual disabilities or affectionless psychopathy are often blamed on parents for not establishing a secure attachment to a primary figure
  • Means fathers may feel pressured to go back to work under the assumption that it will increase the likelihood their children will form a secure attachment to one figure, most likely the mother