Role of fathers

what are the 2 roles?

1) role in play and stimulation - Grossman

2) primary caregiver and nurturing attachment figure - Field

Role in play and stimulation

• Grossman

Method:

-Carried out a longitudinal study, looking at the influence of parental behaviour on attachment

Finding:

- It was found that the quality of father’s play with infants and not their security of attachment with the infant was related to the quality of adolescent attachments with the father

Conclusion:

-This suggests that the father plays a role in terms of play and stimulation rather than a nurturing and care-giving role

Primary care-giver & nurturing attachment figure

• Field

Method:

-Observed 4 month old infants in face to face interactions with their primary caregiver fathers, mothers or secondary caregiver fathers

Finding:

-Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent longer smiling, imitating and holding the infant than secondary caregiver fathers

Conclusion:

-Suggests that the father can play a nurturing role for the infant just like a mother can

• most early attachment research focused on mothers, ignoring fathers - Bowlby

• this led to a lot of uncertainty around the role of fathers in childcare

• Schaffer and Emerson found that 75% of the children formed an attachment with their father by 18 months

strengths

1) Practical application

• The research indicates that infants often form attachments to fathers during early development, and this suggest that rearing responsibilities can be divided more evenly between the mother and father.

• Allows mothers to return to work more quickly after giving birth and give the father a more significant role rearing infants during early life. In modern society, more and more societies are aiding this process by providing fathers with paternity leave (eg Sweden give dads 90 days paid leave)

• Research has changes the lives of working families, giving them more flexibility in managing childcare.

weaknesses

1) Refuting evidence for father’s influence

MacCallum & Golombok: found that kids growing up in single mother or same-sex lesbian families don’t develop any differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families. Shows father attachment isn’t crucial from a child’s development and reduces validity of the assumptions about fathers role in attachment

2) Refuting evidence from learning theory

According to learning theory, attachment emerges due to infants forming an association between the mother and the pleasure derived from feeding. When infants are very young they are often breastfed and fathers play no real part in this process