The role of the father

• Attachment to fathers

  Question= whether babies actually attach to them or when. Evidence suggests that fathers are much less likely to become babies 1st attachment figure compared to mothers.

  • Shaffer and Emerson= majority of babies first became attached to mothers at around 7 months.
  • 3%= the father was 1st sole object of attachment.
  • 27%= father was joint 1st attachment with the mother.
  • 75% of babies formed an attachment with their father by age 18 months.
  • assumption that fathers do attach to their infant= secondary attachment
• Role for fathers

  Grossmann= conducted a longitudinal study (babies attachments studied until they were teens)-found initially that mothers have a more distinctive role.

  -observed parent behaviour and its relationship to quality of baby's later attachments.

  -quality of a baby's attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence.- suggests attachment to fathers is less important.
• role of father continued

  -Grossmann

  -however later research= Quality of fathers play with babies is related to quality of adolescent attachment, fathers role is more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with emotional development.
• Factors that affect relationship

  -degree of sensitivity= the more sensitive the father is to the need of the child, the more secure the attachment is.

  -type of attachment with own parents= single parent fathers tend to mimic the style of their own parents.

  -supportive co-parenting= amount of time, effort, support that a father gives his partner will shape the degree of attachment to his children.

  -marital intimacy= also shape attachment with children.
• Fathers as primary caregivers

  Lamb found that when fathers become sole carers they quickly learn to become more sensitive to their children's needs.

  -suggests the role of nurture is variable and not necessarily bound by biology.

  -so possible that most men could become highly competent primary care givers is the need should arise.
• research- fathers as primary care givers

  Field= filmed 4 month old babies face-to-face interaction with primary care giver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.

  • primary caregiver fathers like mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than the secondary caregiver fathers. These actions are all part of interactional synchrony and reciprocity which are part of the process of attachment formation.
• Evaluation- confusion over research question

  limitation= lack of clarity over what the role of the father is?

  • some researchers want to understand the role of the father as secondary attachment figures= so fathers behaving differently from mothers and having a distinctive role.
  • others are concerned with fathers as primary attachment figures= fathers take on a 'maternal role'
  • this makes it difficult to offer a simple answer.
• Evaluation- conflicting evidence

  limitation= findings vary according to the methodology used.

  • longitudinal studies eg: Grossmann suggested fathers as secondary attachment figures have an important and distinctive role in their children's development, involving play and stimulation.
  • but if fathers have such an important role we would expect children growing up in single-mother and lesbian parent families would turn out different in some way.
  • research shows children don't develop differently from children in 2-parent heterosexual families.
  • so question remains unanswered.
• Evaluation- counterpoint

  -could be that fathers typically take on distinctive roles in 2-parent heterosexual families, but that parents in single-mother families simply adapt to accommodate to the role played by fathers.

  -so when fathers are present they tend to adopt a distinctive roles, but families can adapt without.
• Evaluation- real world application

  -offer advice to parents.

  -parents struggle with decisions of who takes on role of the primary care giver.

  -mothers may feel pressured to stay at home and fathers to focus on work.

  -parents can be informed that fathers can be primary caregivers or not having a father won't make a difference.

  -bias= stereotypes may cause unintentional bias whereby observers 'see' what they expect to see not recording objective reality.