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Fathers as attachment figures


Studies have found that the father is a child’s preferred attachment figure in approximately 5-20% of cases. Fathers and mothers may react differently to the same behaviour in an infant, and the infant may react to the parents’ behaviour differently depending on which parent performs it.

Sigmund Freud generally assumed that early in life, a young infant’s primary attachment object would be its mother because the mother fulfills the infant’s oral desires through feeding. However, he believed that the father begins to play an important role in development when the child enters the phallic stage of development, which generally occurs approximately at the age of three. According to Sigmund Freud, during the phallic stage, children begin to form an incestuous desire for their opposite-sex parent and an antagonistic rivalry with their same-sex parent. The resolution of this stage of development occurs when the child, usually at the age of six, renounces their desire for their opposite-sex parent and begins to identify with their same-sex parent.

Male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children are.

Children are more likely to be attached to their father during their late childhood to early adolescence. Infants and young adults are less likely to seek attachment to their fathers.

The infant’s temperament can influence the role that the father plays in child rearing. A great deal of research has shown that fathers are less likely to be involved with their infant if the infant has a difficult temperament. Furthermore, one study suggests that this lack of paternal involvement in the case of fussy infants may harm the mother’s relationship with her child if the mother believes that the paternal care giving role is important.

Research on whether or not paternal sensitivity has an effect on the security of father-child attachment has produced mixed results. Some studies have shown significant correlations between paternal sensitivity and secure father-child attachments. One study suggests that a father’s sensitivity while playing with his child is as important to the child-father attachment relationship as maternal sensitivity during caregiving is for the child-mother attachment relationship. Furthermore, one study has found that the harm of a father’s frightening behaviours on a child’s future development can be mitigated if the father also has high levels of paternal sensitivity. Having a father who is both insensitive and exhibits frightening behaviours during infancy has been linked to emotional under-regulation at the age of 2 as well as attention problems at the age of 7. However, other studies have failed to find a correlation between paternal sensitivity and infant-father attachment.


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Wikipedia

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