Perhaps you are wondering why the focus of so much research has been on mother and not on father, too. The common assumption, long evident in court child-custody decisions, has been that fathers are less interested and less competent in child care that are mothers.In both subtle and not so subtle ways, psychologists have accept this assumption. Infants who lack mother care are said to suffer maternal deprivation, those lacking father care are said merely to experience father absence.
It is true that across the world mothers tend to assume more responsibility for infant care and that a breast feeding mother and nursing infant have wonderfully coordinated biological systems that predispose their responsiveness to one another . nevertheless, many modern fathers are becoming more involved in infant care, and researchers are becoming more interested in fathers.
One of the leading father watchers Ross Parke reported that father can be just as interested in sensitive to and affectionate toward their infants as mother are. Although mothers typically do most of the infant care fathers are as capable (at least when researchers are watching). It also seems that although most infants prefer their mothers when anxious when left alone they are as distressed by their fathers departure as by their mothers. Moreover infants whose fathers have shared in their care for example by changing diapers are more secure when left with a stranger.
Looking for differences, research psychologists have also uncovered several distinctive ways in which fathers and mothers interact with their infants. Fathers tend to smile less at their babies (male smile less at everyone), to spend more of their interaction in play rather than caretaking (especially with sons) and to play with more physical excitement.
However, when father are the primary caregivers they interact with their babies more as mothers typically do. This suggests that father mother differences are not biologically fixed but have social roots as well. Animal research confirms this. When the Har-lows caged mothers and fathers with their infant monkeys, the fathers were protective and affectionate toward their infants and more likely than mothers to engage in physical play.
Within two parent families, both parents have yet another gift to offer. Their support and agreement in child rearing also tend to be more responsive to their infants and to feel more competent as parents.
