And Daddy Makes Three: The Father's Impact on Mother and Young Child

Abstract

CLARKE-STEWART, K. ALISON. And Daddy Makes Three: The Father's Impact on Mother and Young Child. Camiu DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 466-478. The purpose of the present study was to expand our meager knowledge of fathers' behavior in interaction with their young children and to explore their direct and indirect contributions to children's development. 14 fathers were observed with their children in unstructured and semistructured situations at home, 3 timeswhen the children were 15, 20, and 30 months old. Mothers and children were also observed, with and without fathers, and assessments were made of children's intellectual competence, at these 3 ages. The observations revealed both similarities (in quality of interaction and emotional attachment) and differences (in amount of interaction and involvement in play) between mother-child and father-child interactions. They also showed the effect of the father's presence on mother-child interaction. Correlations between parental and child variables indicated that relations among the 3 family members are complexly and triadically related and suggested that, over time, the direction of influence in the family is from mother to child to father to mother.