The role of the father

• History shows that mothers played a more nurturing role whilst fathers played an instrumental role, but this has changed over time
• Traditionally it was thought that an infant needed a mother to form a healthy attachment and little attention was paid to the role of fathers
• At 18 months, 75% of the infants had attached to the father, demonstrated by the fact that the babies protested when their father walked away
• The quality of infant attachments to mothers was correlated with quality of attachments in adolescence, but the infant's relationship with fathers had no bearing on quality of attachments in adolescence
• Quality of play with fathers in infancy did correlate with attachments in adolescence, suggesting fathers have a different role in attachment - one that is to do more with stimulation than nurturing
• Primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than the secondary caregiver fathers
• Researchers have had different aims with some considering fathers as primary attachment figures and others looking at fathers as secondary attachment figures
• More recent studies reflecting the diversity in modern day parenting, do not support the role of the father in forming attachments
• 400,000 families were headed by lone fathers in 2012, and parental care has changed considerably in recent years, with more women now going out to work and many fathers staying at home and being the main caregiver
• Caldera (2004) found that when fathers were heavily involved in care-giving activities the infant was more likely to have a strong attachment to him