FATHER-CHILD INTERACTION AS A FUNCTION OF AGE AND GENDER OF THE CHILD.
Item
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Title
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FATHER-CHILD INTERACTION AS A FUNCTION OF AGE AND GENDER OF THE CHILD.
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Identifier
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AAI8123028
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identifier
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8123028
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Creator
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SACKS, JO ANN YUDELL.
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Contributor
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Prof. Joseph Glick
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Date
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1981
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental
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Abstract
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In recent years there has been an increased interest in the role of the father in child development, in part as a response to an earlier over-emphasis on mother-child interactions and the scarcity of information regarding the father's role in the socialization process.;Current empirical data suggests that father-child interactions are affected by both the age and gender of the child. Much of this data has been methodologically flawed by the fact that information regarding fathers has been gathered indirectly (from maternal reports), in structured laboratory settings, or from paternal self-reports.;In the present study, naturally occurring family interaction was observed on two weekday evenings for the one hour immediately following father's arrival home from work.;The primary aim of the research was to provide descriptive data regarding father-child interaction in the pre-school period. The nature of father-child dyadic interaction was assessed with regard to: frequency of various activities, location of father and child, and the types of communication behaviors engaged in.;A second aim was to provide information regarding the temporal structure of the weekday evening observation period in order to clarify the context within which father-child interaction took place.;The subjects were thirty-two father-child dyads in four groups of eight children each: age-three girls; age-three boys; age-five girls; age-five boys. Within each group, half of the fathers were traditional and half were non-traditional on a self-report measure of division of labor in childcare. All subjects were drawn from middle-class communities in the New York metropolitan area. All mothers were primary caregivers.;Father-child communication was found to take place within a temporal event structure which provided constraints upon the location and activity of father and child.;During the evening observation period, father was more interactive than mother. In those families where little father-child interaction existed, the child spent more time alone without any parental interaction.;Overall, there was greater interaction between fathers and sons as evidenced by quantitative measures of: time in the same room, time located less than two feet apart, time in direct communication, amount of vocalization and amount of looking directed at children.;Fathers and age-three sons engaged in twice as much interaction as any other father-child dyads. Fathers spent almost one-half of the one hour observation in direct verbal or non-verbal communication with three-year-old sons.;In age-five dyads, fathers continued to be more interactive with sons than with daughters. However, they displayed greatly decreased physical contact with sons and increased physical contact with daughters.;In terms of age-related differences, fathers were found to engage in more physical contact and more play behavior with younger than with older children.;The data supports the notion that father is a salient and highly interactive figure in the family system during the pre-school period. The expectation that father-child behaviors would change as a function of the age and gender of the child was supported. The data also suggests the importance of specifying the context within which communication takes place.;The results are discussed in relation to the specificity of the time-frame in which the observation took place and the special nature of family interaction during the weekday evenings. Suggestions were made for modifying the present research in order to address the issue of "preference" in interaction.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
