Role Of The Father Flashcards
How are the roles of fathers changing throughout time???
- modern times mothers are far more likely to work with 71.2% mothers working in 2020 and there is a rise in stay at home fathers with men 10% of those who care for children while the other partner works.
-9% of single parents are fathers
What were the results of Schaffers and Emersons study that relates to the role of the father??
Infants form multiple attachment by the age of 10-11 months and by 18 months 31% of infants formed multiple attachments.
The most common second attachment was the father with 27% in the initial sample and 75% at 18 months formed attachments with their father
What are the mediating factors that relate to what type of attachment a father has with his children??
Interaction - how much father engages with child
Accessibility- how physically and emotionally accessible he is
Responsibility- extent to which he takes on caregiving tasks
What is the Grossman (2002) study for the role of the father??
Conducted a longitudinal study of 44 families comparing the role of the fathers and mothers contribution to their children’s attachment experiences at 6,10 and 16 years
Found quality of mother child attachment was important when assessing the quality of attachment into adolescence but this was not the case for the father child attachment indicating the role of the father is less important. But found the quality of the father’s play was related to the quality of attachment, suggesting fathers role may be more of a stimulating one
What was the field (1978) study for the role of the father??
Compared behaviours of primary caretaker mothers with primary and secondary caretaker fathers. Face to face interactions were analysed from video footage with infants at 4 months of age. They found that fathers who were primary attachment figures acted very similar way to mothers who were primary attachment figures to the children showing more smiling and imitative grimaces and vocalisations than secondary caregiver fathers. Suggests that the fathers are able to take in more caring nurturing role usually associated with the mother
What was the Brown et al (2012) study for the role of the father???
Investigated father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years of age. Results showed that involvement and sensitivity influenced father child attachment security at the age of 3 years. They concluded that the gender of a caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types/ quality, rather its extent of caregiver involvement
What is the MacCallum and Golombok (2004) study for the role of the father??
Found that children growing up in single parent or same sex families do not develop differently from those who grow up I more conventional families suggesting that the role of the father is not a significant attachment
What is the Hrdy (1997) study for sensitivity for the role of the father??
Investigated sensitivity of the fathers and suggests that fathers are less able than mothers to detect low levels of infant distress which suggests males as less suitable as primary caregivers. But Lamb (1978) found fathers who became the primary attachment quickly develop more sensitivity to children’s need which suggests that sensitive responsiveness isn’t a biological ability.
Support the importance sensitivity and indicate that difference in males and females in responsiveness may be down to differences in time spent with children not biological differences
What is the Frodo DT al (1978) study for biological differences for the role of the father??
Showed videotapes of infants crying and found no differences in the physiological response of men and women suggesting that biological factors may not explain the gender differences in attachment relationships. Finding challenged the view that fathers have less of a biological motivation to attach to their offspring
What is the Geiger (1996) study for different roles for the role of the father???
Found that fathers play a different role to mothers. Geiger showed that fathers play interactions are more exciting and pleasured than mothers while mothers are more nurturing and affectionate which supports the idea of fathers being playmates rather than caregivers complementing the mothers role in the child’s development. The findings support the roles of mothers and fathers are complementary and that both roles are important rather than a hierarchy system suggest by BOWLBY’S mono-tropic theory
What are the strengths of the role of the fathers??
- research support that fathers play complementary role
- practical applications
What are the weaknesses of the role of the father???
- research into role of the father can be considered ethnocentric
- can be socially sensitive
