Role of the Father

• Historical/Societal Context:

  • Historically, fathers would go to work, to earn money and provide resources whilst mothers stayed home to look after the children
  • However, changes in society such as the push for feminism and the Equality Act (2010), have significantly changed the role of the father in modern society
  • For example, more fathers may stay at home or be single
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964):

  • Found that the majority of infants did become attcahed to their mother first (around 7 months), and within a few months, formed attachments to other members of immediate family such as the father
  • In 75% of infants, the attachment to the father was formed at around 18 months
  • This suggests the role of the father as a secondary caregiver and attachment figure - the mother is seen to be more important as the primary attachment figure in the majority of infants
• Grossman (2002):

  • Conducted a longitudinal study looking both parents behaviour (mother and father), and the influence on the quality of the relationships formed in teens
  • Found the quality of a mother's attachment influneces care and nurture, wheras the quality of the father's attachment played a role to do with play and stimulation, rather than nurturing
  • Suggests the role of the father is still important, but differs from the role of the mother (play/stimulation not nurture)
• Field (1978):

  • Filmed videos of babies in face-to-face interactions with both primary caregiver fathers and mothers and secondary caregivers
  • Found that the primary caregiver was the one who spent more time smiling and interacting with the infant, compared to the secondary caregiver (true for primary caregiver fathers and mothers alike)
  • Suggests that the role of father in being the primary caregiver does not differ due to gender, but is instead due to whoever spends more time in carrying out meaningful interactions with the infant (they will have the stronger bond)
• AO3 - Ignores Biological Factors:

  • Research into the role of the father fails to consider the role of biological processes in why mothers take on a more nurturing role compared to fathers, and why they are more likely to be the primary caregiver
  • Women have higher levels of oestrogen that are associated with higher levels of nurture and care, suggesting this may play a role in explaining caregiver-infant attachments - women may be biologically predisposed to be the primary attachment figure
  • Suggests the research and explanations derived from it can be seen as 'deterministic' (not complete)
• AO3 - Alpha Bias:

  • Reserach such as Grossman (2002) exaggerates the differences in the roles between males and females in infant attachment - thsi can lead to the negative reinforcement of gender stereotypes and could lead to potential sexism and discrimination
  • May use scientific justification from research support as an avenue for discrimination
• AO3 - Socially Sensitive:

  • The research into the role of the father can lead to negative implications for the groups of people being represented by the research
  • This can affect groups such as working mothers and single parents who may feel guilt for not fulfilling their expected roles as the research suggests
  • Working mothers could potentially end up leaving work due to the effects of the research (leave to go home and stay with the infant), leading to negative implications for the economy also (less people in work)
• AO3 - Research Only Considers Nuclear Families:

  • Much of the research into attachment regarding the roles of the mother and father, fail to consider single parent families
  • Studies have shown that children who grow up with a single parent develop no differently from those with both a mother and a father
  • Suggests a child can healthily develop regardless of the gender of their caregiver, as long as they recieve nurture and play from their parent(s) - supports Field's research and contradicts Grossman (2002) in that parents have separate roles