The role of the father

Some psychologists want to understand the role of fathers as secondary attachment figures. But others are more concerned with fathers as a primary attachment figure.

The former have tended to see fathers as behaving differently form mothers and having a distinct role. The latter have found that fathers can take on a 'maternal' role.

This is a limitation because it means psychologists cannot easily answer the simple quesiton: what is the role of the father?

Grossman found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important and distinct role in their childnen's development, involving play and simulation.

Other studies (e.g. McCallum and Golombok) found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families don't develop differently from those in two-parent families.

This suggests that the father's role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.

The answer could be related to 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 in a nurturing way.

Or it could be that female hormones (e.g. oestrogen) create higher levels of nurtuing and therefore women are biologically predisposed to be primary attachment figures.

Preconceptions about how fathers behave are created by common discussions about mothers' and fathers' parenting behvaiour.

These stereotypes (e.g. fathers are more playful, stricter, etc.) may cause unintentional observer bias whereby observers 'see' what they expect rather than recording actual reality.

As such, conclusions on the role of the father in attachment are hard to disentangle from social biases about their role.

Mothers feel pressured to stay at home because of research that says mothers are vital for healthy emotional development.

In some families this may not be economically the best solution - for them or our society in general.

This research may be of comfort to mothers who feel they have to make hard choices about not returning to work.