A- Multiple Attachments & Role of the Father Flashcards
What factors affect the relationship between fathers and children?
1) DEGREE OF SENSITIVITY: More secure attachments to children are found in fathers who show more sensitivity to their children.
2) TYPES OF ATTACHMENTS WITH THEIR OWN PARENTS: Single-parent fathers tend to form similar attachments with their children that they had with their own parents.
3) MARITIAL INTIMACY: The degree of intimacy a father has within his relationship with his partner affects the type of attachment he will have with his children.
4) SUPPORTING CO-PARENTING: The amount of support a father gives to his partner in helping to care for children affects the type of attachment he will have with his own children.
What role of the father have researchers usually seen?
Many researchers have seen the father less as a caregiver, but more of a playmate, as fathers’ play is often more physical, unpredictable and exciting than mothers’.
Give two supporting studies for the role of fathers. (Belsky & Brown)
1) Belsky et al. (2009) found that high levels of marital intimacy was related to secure father-infant attachments, and that low levels of marital intimacy was related to insecure father-infant attachments – this shows that the closeness of relationships between fathers and partners affects the type of attachment a father has with their children.
2) Brown et al. (2010) assessed attachment patterns in 68 families with infants aged 12-13 months, finding that high levels of supportive co-parenting were related to secure attachment types between infants and fathers but not between infants and mothers. This suggests that supportive parenting is important for fathers in developing positive attachments with their children.
Evaluate the role of the father. (STRENGTHS)
1) Children who have secure attachments with their fathers have good peer relationships, fewer problem behaviours and are more able to control their emotions which illustrates the positive influence of fathers.
2) Fathers are important for mothers as well as children. Fathers who help with childcare allow mothers to have some time for themselves, which helps reduce stress, increases self-esteem and enables mothers to interact positively with their children
3) Children without fathers often do less well at school and show high levels of risk-taking and aggression. This suggests that fathers can help prevent negative developmental outcomes.
Evaluate the role of the father. (DISADVANTAGES)
1) INCONSISTENT FINDINGS ON FATHERS
- Research into the role of fathers is confusing because different researchers are interested in finding out about different questions. - Some researchers want to see the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure and some as a primary attachment figure – this them makes it difficult to answer the question – what is the role of the father?
2) WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN WHO ARE BORN IN SINGLE PARENT FAMILIES AND GENERALLY HAVE NO FATHER?
- The study by Grossman found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important role in their children’s development.
- However other studies such as MacCallum and Golombok (2004) have found that children growing up only with their mothers or same sex couples, do not develop any differently to children who are reared in two-parent heterosexual families – these findings seems to suggest that the role of the father is not important!
3) WHY DON’T FATHERS GENERALLY BECOME PRIMARY ATTACHMENTS?
- This could be due to the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men – therefore fathers simply don’t feel they should act like that. - On the other hand, it could be that female hormones (such as oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure. - This could also be due to the fact that Bowlby, who was an influential psychologist, argued that the role of the father was primarily economic and thus not really important in the nurturing of infants!
