Fathers as Attachment Figures

• Parent - Infant Attachment: Schaffer/Emerson ( 1964 ) found 75% of babies formed secondary attachment with the father by the age of 18 months
• Role of the father - Grossman ( 2002 ) did longitudinal study, found that quality of attachment in infancy with mum was related to attachment in adolescence - suggesting fathers are less important
• Quality of Play : Grossman ( 2002 ) found that fathers are more likely to do with play an stimulation which is related to quality of attachment in adolescence - less with nurturing
• Fathers as Primary Caregivers : Field ( 1978 ) found that primary caregiver fathers who spend more time smiling, imitating and holding formed an attachment which was nurturing, levels of responsiveness and not gender
• Inconsistency : findings on fathers have contradicting evidence on primary and secondary fathers, role of father becomes unclear
• If fathers have distinct role…why aren’t children with fathers?

  Maccallum/Golombok ( 2004 ) found that children who grow up in single/same sex parenting do not develop any different to those of two-parent heterosexual families which suggests that fathers being secondary attachment figures is not important
• Why not generally primary attachment?

  fathers tend to not become primary due to traditional gender roles, women are expected to be nurturing, however, females, are also biologically pre-disposed to be primary attachment figure due to hormones ( oestrogen )