Role of the Father

• Primary attachment


  Usually with mothers but sometimes both
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study


  • Majority of babies become attached to their mother first (around 7 months)
  • In only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment
  • In 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother
  • Within a few weeks or months, they then formed secondary attachments to other family members, including the father
• 75% eventually form secondary attachments with father
• In 75% of infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months- we can see this through how the infants protested when the father left
• Attachment with mother


  Most related to Teen attachments
• Grossmann (2002) study


  • Quality of attachment with the father was less important in the attachment type of the teenagers than quality of attachment with the mother
  • Fathers may be less important in long-term emotional development
• Fathers' play


  More important in attachment. the fathers role is with play and stimulation, not nurture.
• When fathers do take on the role of being the main caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers. Smiling, imitating and holding infants are behaviours that appear to be important in building an attachment with an infant.
• Key to the attachment relationship

  The level of responsiveness, not the gender of the parent
• Field- filmed 4 month old babies and found primary caregiver fathers spent time smiling and imitating than fathers who were secondary caregivers.
• A03- A limitation is the evidence undermines the idea of fathers having distinct roles

  • Grossman (2002) found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important and distinct role in their children's development. involving play and stimulation.
  •  Other studies (e.g. MacCallum 2004) found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families don't develop differently from those in two-parent families. This suggests that the father's role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.
• A03- Research fails to provide a clear answer about fathers & primary attachments

  • The answer could be related to traditional gender roles in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men. 
  • Therefore, fathers simply don't feel they should act in a nurturing way
  • Or it could be that female hormones (e.g. oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically predisposed to be primary attachment figures
• A03- A further limitation is that social biases prevent objective observation

  • Preconceptions about how fathers behave are created by common discussions about mothers' and fathers' parenting behaviour. 
  • These stereotypes (e.g. fathers are more playful, stricter. etc.) may cause an unintentional observer bias whereby observers 'see' what they expect rather than recording actual reality. As such, conclusions on the role of the father in attachment are hard to disentangle from social biases about their role.
• A03- This research has import economic implications

  • Mothers feel pressured to stay at home because of research that says mothers are vital for healthy emotional development. 
  • In some families, this may not be economically the best solution — for them or our society in general. 
  • This research may be of comfort to mothers who feel they have to make hard choices about not returning to work.