the role of the father

Question 1

historical reasons for more research on mothers

Answer 1

• historically, research focused on the role of mothers and not fathers
• due to stereotypes stating that mothers used to be expected to stay at home whilst fathers go out and work, therefore meaning that mothers would spend more time with infants
• nowadays this isn’t as much of a stereotype and stay at home dads are much more common
• also biologically, the mother is the one who grew and gave birth to the baby, and can feed it
• whereas now, it is more common for fathers to adopt children and therefore be the primary caregiver, and bottle feeding is very common

Question 2

attachment to fathers

Answer 2

• in schaffer and emerson’s research, they found that most babies became attached to their mothers at around 7 months, and in only 3% of cases was the father the first attachment figure, but in 27% of cases it was joint between the mother and father
• however fathers go on to become important attachment figures. 75% of babies studied formed an attachment with their fathers by 18 months
• this was determined by the fact that babies protested when their father walked away

Question 3

distinctive role for fathers - grossmann

Answer 3

• grossmann carried out a longitudinal study where babies’ attachments were studied until their teenage years
• looked at both parents’ behaviour and how it related to the quality of their babies’ later attachments to others
• quality of a baby’s attachment with mothers but not with fathers was related to later attachments
• however, grossmann also found that the quality of father’s play with babies was related to later attachments
• this overall suggests that fathers have a different role from mothers, to do with play and stimulation rather than emotional development

Question 4

fathers as primary attachment figures - field’s study

Answer 4

• a baby’s primary attachment has special emotional significance, this relationship forms basis for all later attachments
• there is evidence top show that when fathers take on the role of primary caregiver, they are able to adopt the same emotional role as mothers
• tiffany field filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
• primary caregiver fathers (and mothers) smiled, imitated and held babies more than secondary caregiver fathers
• fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary attachment figure and can perhaps only provide this reponsiveness when given the role of primary caregiver

Question 5

evaluation - conflicting evidence

Answer 5

• findings vary according to methodology used
• studies such as grossmann’s suggested that secondary attachment fathers have an important role in child’s development
• however we would therefore expect that children growing up in single mother and lesbian parent families would turn out some way different than others
• some studies consistently show that these children do not develop differently
• this means that the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered

Question 6

evaluation - real world application

Answer 6

• research can be used to offer advice to parents
• parents and prospective parents often stress over who should take the primary caregiver role
• mothers may feel pressured to stay at home and fathers may be pressured to focus on work instead
• research into the role of the father can be reassuring to parents, reducing parental anxiety
• governmental policies have also changed due to this new knowledge, fathers used to get no leave for when their wives gave birth, however they are now allowed an amount of paternity leave, although this is still fairly minimal (around 2 weeks)