Father-Child Relationships

Question 1

How do fathers’ interactions with children differ from mothers’?

Answer 1

Quantity & quality; fathers have less interaction time w/children & interact w/infants via play activities (“rough and tumble”) as opposed to care giving (e.g., feeding, bathing, changing diapers); mothers play with infants in less physical, less arousing ways

Question 2

How has children’s interaction with fathers changed over the past 2 decades?

Answer 2

Fathers interact more with children than before, but still spend considerably less time with children than mothers

Question 3

What have studies of nontraditional families (mother works full-time and father is primary caregiver) found with respect to parental roles?

Answer 3

Traditional parental roles do not necessarily change; in Swedish study, even when fathers were primary caregiver, mothers were still more likely than fathers to soothe, hold, kiss, vocalize to, and discipline their young children