Role of father - multiple attachment

• Bowlby (1960) proposed that the mother is the primary caregiver, but fathers can also be important.
• fathers role

  seen more as playmates
• mothers role

  seen more senestive
• the degree of sensitivity

  fathers who are sensitive to their child needs, develop a more secure attachment
• marital intimacy

  type of attachment father develops with his child related to the level of intimacy he had with his partner
• single parent fathers

  tend to form similar attachments with their children as they had with their parent
• supportive co-parenting

  the level of support a father provides his partner in helping care for his children, will affect the attachment type he will have with his children
• children with secure attachment with father

  regulate emotions better

  better at regulating emotions
• children with lack of/no father figure

  does worse at school

  more aggressive (especially boys)

  suggesting fathers help to prevent negative development outcomes
• ross et al (1975) aim

  investigate the impact of caretaking duties on parental attachment
• procedure

  correlational study - measuring number of nappies changed and strength of attachment
• result

  positive correlation was found between the number of nappies change and the strength of father/child attachment
• conclusion

  the more time a father spends engaged in caregiver activities the stronger attachment will be
• evaluation - strengths

  easy to replicate

  practical application for parenting and forming attachment
• Evaluation limitations

  lacks temporal validity - more fathers change nappies than they did in 1975

  correlation doesn't show cause