The role of the father Flashcards
What did Schaffer and Emerson find about Primary attachment?
The majority of babies form a primary attachment with their mother first (7 months)
What percentage of cases was the father the first/primary caregiver?
3%
In what % of cases was the father the joint first attachment figure?
27%
What % of babies formed a secondary attachment with the father?
75% by 18 months, indicated by a sign of seperation anxiety
Outline the role of the father in attachment?
The father is seen to engage babies in active play activities more consistently than mothers. Fathers interactions emphasise stimulation, and so it is thought their role is to encourage risk taking behaviour.
Outline Grossman (2002) study looking at parent behaviour and relationship to quality of childrens attachment into their teens.
-Grossman conducted a longitudinal study, which found that the quality of attachment with the father was less important for adolescent attachment than the quality of attachment with the mother.
- suggesting the father may be less important in long term emotional development.
What evidence suggests that fathers can be primary attachment figures?
-Field (1978) Filmed 4-month-old babies and found that primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spend more time smiling,imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers.
- These behaviours are relared to interactional synchrony and the formation of emotional attachment.
One limitation of research into the role of fathers is lack of clarity over the question being asked
The question, What is the role of the father? in the context of attachment is much more complicated than it sounds. Some researchers attempting to answer this question actually want to understand the role of fathers as secondary altachment figures. But others are more concerned with fathers as a primary attachment figure.
The former have tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role. The latter have found that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role
This makes it difcult to offer a simple answer as to the role of the
father. It really depends what specific role is being discussed
A further limitation of research into the role of fathers is that findings vary according to the methodology used.
Longitudinal studies such as that of Grossmann have suggested that fathers as secondary attachment figures have an Important and distinct role in their children’s development, involving play and stimulation.However, if fathers have a distinctive and important role we would expect that children growing up in single-mother and lesbian-parent families would turn out in some way different from those in two-parent heterosexual families.
In fact studies (e.g. McCallum and Golombok 2004) consistently show that these children do not develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families.
This means that the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role
remains unanswered.
COUNTERPOINT : These lines of research may not in fact be in conflict.
It could be that fathers typically take on distincive roles in two-parent heterosexual families, but that parents in single-mother and lesblan-parent families simply adapt to accommodate the role played by fathers.
This means that the question of a distinctive role for fathers is clear after all. When present, fathers tend to adopt a distinctive role, but families can adapt to not having a father.
One strength of research into the role of the father is that it can be used to offer advice to parents.
Parents and prospective parents sometimes agonise over decisions like who should take on the primary caregiver role. For some this can even mean worrying about whether to have children at all.
Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home because of stereotypical views of mothers’ and fathers’ roles Equally, fathers may be pressured to focus on work rather than parenting. In some families this may not be economically the best solution.
Research into the role of the father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents. For example, heterosexual parents can be informed that fathers are quite capable of becoming primary attachment figures. Also lesbian-parent and single-mother families can be informed that not having a father around does not affect a child’s development.
This means that parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced
