Role of father

• what percentage of babies formed their first attachment to their fathers in Schaffer and Emerson's study?

  3%
• what percentage of cases was the father joint first object of attachment with the mother?

  27%
• what did Schaffer and Emerson find 75% of?

  75% of babies in their study formed a secondary attachment to their father's by the age of 18 months
• what did Grossmann carry out?

  a longitudinal study of babies attachment until they were teens
• Limitation: Role of father

  P = findings vary according to methodology used

  E = Grossmann's longitudinal study suggested fathers as secondary attachment figures have an important role in a child's development

  E = however if this was the case , children growing up in a single mother and lesbian parent household / family should turn out different to those brought up in a two -parent heterosexual family , study by McCallum and Golombok consistently show that these children do not develop diff

  L - question as to whether fathers have distinctive role remains unanswered
• Strength : Role of father

  P = offer advice to parents

  E = e.g heterosexual parents can be informed that the father can become the primary attachment figures whilst the mother works + single mother + lesbian parent families cam be informed that having an absent father doesn't affect Childs development

  E = research of role of the father provides reassurance to families who are agonised and pressured about stereotypical views of the mother should stay at home whilst the father focuses on work rather than parenting

  L = parental anxiety about the role of a father is reduced