Child-father and child-mother attachment relationships in naturalistic settings

This study examines paternal and maternal sensitivity as predictors of toddlers' attachment security in two naturalistic contexts. Seventy-three mostly White middle-class families participated between 2015 and 2019 when children (49.3% girls) were approximately 29.48 months old. Each child-parent dyad completed a home and playground visit. Findings revealed paternal and maternal sensitivity were significantly associated at home and marginally at the playground. Paternal sensitivity was only predictive of security to the father at the playground, showing a medium effect, while small effects of maternal sensitivity on security to the mother were found in both contexts. Cross-parent contributions to security were small and limited to the playground. The need to consider the greater ecology of child-parent relationships and suggestions for larger-scale research are discussed.

From Sperm to Fatherhood: An Experimental Approach to Determinants of Paternal Responsibility

During the last decades, there has been a substantial change in family structure in Western societies. The standing of the classical nuclear family has changed from the norm to just one option out of many, and the understanding of family has diversified. Biologically deterministic conceptions of parenthood have thus started to erode. Despite this, the circumstances under which a biological father is perceived as a social father have not been studied so far. Across four experimental studies, we tried to explore the antecedents which explain differences in the ascription of social fatherhood. Study 1 (N = 85) provided strong support for the notion that the level of perceived social fatherhood differs between one-night stands and sperm donation. Three additional experiments empirically tested the plausibility of three potential reasons for this large difference. Study 2 (N = 88) provided no support for the role of the naturalness of the insemination process. Study 3 (N = 341) tested the role of the time of negotiation of fatherhood but did not provide support for the idea that the time of negotiating fatherhood (before vs. after conception) determines attributions of responsibility. A final Study 4 (N = 173), however, supported the notion that a woman's strategy of negotiating sex as a functional means to achieve a pregnancy reduced paternal responsibility. The sex of the rater as an independent variable did not have any effect on the ascriptions of fatherhood. Across all studies, we neither found a main effect of sex of the rater on ascription of fatherhood nor an interaction with the experimental condition. The results of the studies are discussed with respect to changing conceptions of fatherhood.

Some Antecedents of Children's Sex-Role Stereotypes

The present study investigated children's observational learning of sex-role stereotypes from parental and televised models. Children's and parents' sex-role stereotypes were measured by Baruch's (1975) shortened sex-role stereotype questionnaire. Children's stereotypes tended to be similar to their parents' stereotypes, and children whose mothers were employed outside the home had less stereotyped sex-role perceptions than children whose mothers did not work outside the home. The results also indicated that heavy television viewers did not have more stereotyped sex-role perceptions than moderate or light viewers. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Academic Achievement and Locus of Control in Father-Absent Elementary School Children

Standardized achievement scores and academic locus of control were investigated in 28 father-absent (FA) and 28 father-present (FP) third-grade children of similar IQ characteristics. Father-absent children performed significantly worse than FP children in reading achievement. There were no differences between the two groups for spelling and arithmetic, but FA males performed significantly worse than FA females, whose achievement level was closer to that of the FP males and females. For academic locus of control, FA children, compared with FP children, tended to perceive successful achievement outcomes as being related to external sources of control such as task ease or teacher assistance. On the other hand, the two groups took similar responsibility for their failures. Together, the results of this study suggest that for FA and FP groups of similar IQ characteristics, there is already some evidence of the detrimental effects of father absence on cognitive development by the third grade. Further, the academic locus of control characteristics of the one-parent children suggest that their achievement deficits may become more marked in later grades.

Coordination of gaze, facial expressions and vocalizations of early infant communication with mother and father

Gaze direction, expressive behaviors and vocalizations are infants' first form of emotional communication. The present study examined the emotional configurations of these three behaviors during face-to-face situations and the effect of infants' and parents' gender. We observed 34 boys and 32 girls (mean age of 18 weeks) during the normal face-to-face interaction with their mother and with their father. Three main behaviors and their temporal co-occurrence were observed: gaze direction at the partner as an indication of infants' attention, positive and negative facial expressions as emotional communication, and vocalizations as first forms of utterances. Pairwise, infants' production of vocalizations, positive facial expressions and gaze were strongly coordinated with each. In addition, the majority of vocalizations produced during positive facial expressions coincided with gaze at the parent. Results on the effect of gender showed that infants (both boys and girls) produced coordinated patterns of positive facial expressions and gaze more often during the interaction with the mother as compared to the interaction with the father. Results contribute to the research on infants' early expression of emotions and gender differences.

Does Father Know Best? A Formal Model of the Paternal Influence on Childhood Social Anxiety

We explore paternal social anxiety as a specific risk factor for childhood social anxiety in a rational optimization model. In the course of human evolution, fathers specialized in external protection (e.g., confronting the external world) while mothers specialized in internal protection (e.g., providing comfort and food). Thus, children may instinctively be more influenced by the information signaled by paternal versus maternal behavior with respect to potential external threats. As a result, if fathers exhibit social anxiety, children interpret it as a strong negative signal about the external social world and rationally adjust their beliefs, thus becoming stressed. Under the assumption that paternal signals on social threats are more influential, a rational cognitive inference leads children of socially anxious fathers to develop social anxiety, unlike children of socially anxious mothers. We show in the model that mothers cannot easily compensate for anxious paternal behavior, but choose to increase maternal care to maintain the child's wellbeing. We discuss research directions to test the proposed model as well as implications for the prevention and treatment of child social anxiety.

Fathers' role in the etiology, prevention and treatment of child anxiety: A review and new model

Fathers have been neglected in investigations of the development, prevention, and treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. This review provides a historical background of what is known about fathers' roles in the etiology of anxiety problems and provides evidence from bottom-up, top-down, and cross-sectional correlation studies of the connections between fathers' and their children's anxiety. Treatment and prevention programs are discussed in terms of the limited findings regarding fathers' involvement in treatment for children's and adolescents' anxiety problems. Finally, a model is presented to show the unique ways in which mothers and fathers are involved in the development of anxiety disorders in their children. Future directions for research in this area are highlighted.

Parent-infant interaction in 8-month-olds

Twenty 8-month-olds were observed interacting with their parents in a structured laboratory situation. Their responses to separations from each parent and the entrance of a strange adult were recorded. These events did not result in the predicted intensification of parental preferences. Before and after the "stressors," infants showed slight and equivocal preferences for their mothers over their fathers. Implications are briefly described.