Role Of Father

Bowlby believed that children have one primary attachment, typically mother but it can also be the ___________

father

Most see father as a _________ than a caregiver and mother are able to show more _____ ________ but males can develop this role when they become a primary caregiver

• playmate

• sensitive responsiveness

What did Schaffer and Emerson find out about the role of the father

• 3% of babies formed primary attachment with father

• 27% of babes formed primary attachment jointly with father and mother

• conclusion: small proportion of fathers are primary caregivers but typically the mother

Explain Grossman study of role of the father

Procedure:

• longitudinal study (around 44 families)

• studied children from babies to teenagers

• looked at both parents behaviour and the quality of attachment

Findings:

• Quality of infant–mother attachment - strongly related to children's attachment in adolescence.

• Quality of infant–father attachment did not significantly predict later attachment in adolescence.

  • more important in play interactions during later childhood, did contribute to children's social development.

• Conclusion:

  • father links to adolescent development of making friends, confidence and risk taking

What was Field study on role of father

• Procedure:

  • filmed 4 month old babies face to face interactions with primary care giver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary care giver mothers

• Findings:

  • primary caregiver fathers - spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants

• Conclusion:

  • gender is not important - level of responsiveness and nurturing more important

Give reasons why mothers are still more likely to be primary caregiver

• Cultural factors (told to be breadwinners and work - stereotypical views)

• Economic factors (many fathers have to work away from home for stable lifestyle)

• Biological factors (women more nurturing and stimulate oestrogen)

AO3 - STRENGTH

• Real world applications:

  • has helped shape parenting advice and supporting families

  • encourages paternal involvement in early childcare

    e.g. fathers can now take paternity leave - stay with child at early stage and form bond

AO3 - WEAKNESS

• Inconsistent findings

  • some show fathers as secondary attachment some as primary attachment

  • researches may be interested in different research questions

  • some more interested as role as secondary attachment and some as primary attachment

  • cannot easily answer the question - what is the role of father

• Suffer from cultural and social bias

  • most studies conducted in western societies - with traditional gender roles

  • collectivist cultures and more diverse families - father may play a more important role

  • lacks population validity and not generalisable to all types of families

• Doesn’t explain why children without fathers develop normally

  • MacCallum and Golombok - children in single or same-sex families children do not develop any differently

  • challenges idea that father is needed for healthy development

  • more important about nurturing the child rather than gender