I am interested in the affect/health aspects of becoming a stay-at-home dad which for most fathers living in a culture where hegemonic masculinity contradicts this, becomes a liminal and vulnerable state. If attachment theory is based on an interpersonal relationship between infant and caregiver then surely this is a two-way street in the 'motivational and behavioral system'. The attachment possibly provides important resources in terms of emotional support and "safe base" for the father from which to redefine masculinity and to build up self-esteem and reassurance when manliness is being questioned. Any literature on the caregiver perspective in attachment theory?
Hello,
Considering the caregiver's perspective is a very interesting one, but as you know most of the attachment literature is focused on the role of attachment for the child. Possibly because the parent brings to the relationship a well-established attachment style and thus more heavily influences their parent-baby/child relation than does the child. Hopefully you will get answers from others on this. In the interim, perhaps the research on gender-role conflict can shed some light in this domain.
O'Neil, J. M. (2008). Summarizing 25 years of research on men's gender role conflict using the gender role conflict scale new research paradigms and clinical implications. The Counseling Psychologist, 36(3), 358-445.
And the domain of masculinity or precarious manhood...
Vandello, J. A., & Bosson, J. K. (2013). Hard won and easily lost: A review and synthesis of theory and research on precarious manhood. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 14(2), 101.
and gender-role strain research..
Levant, R. F. (2011). Research in the psychology of men and masculinity using the gender role strain paradigm as a framework. American Psychologist, 66(8), 765.
Good luck.
Hello Felicia, as Adelheid infers attachment theory is not the right methodology for thinking about the remaking of fatherhood. Attachment theory originates in an understanding of how infants grow developmentally. Mothers and fathers are transformed by the experience of parenting, but attachment theory and psychoanalysts such as Winnicott focus on the mother's good enough parenting. The father is a secondary figure. Klein puts the figure of the father between mother and baby. You could pursues a psychoanalytic approach but it is limited in its usefulness in rethinking the function of fatherhood. Nancy Chodorow wrote the seminal text on objects relations gender development and motherhood in the 1970s - The Reproduction of Mothering.
There is now a large literature on fathers and fatherhood but not so much on what you are trying to do. In the early years too much of the work negated the historical meanings of being a man. I do not think these are simply cultural constructions that can be abandoned for something new. Men and women are different. They can be equal in many spheres of life but they cannot be the same. So if fathers are not to become mothers or 'the same as women' how might a rethinking of fatherhood take place? I have only ever found one attempt at this. Its an essay by Paul Ricoeur called Fatherhood: From Phantasm to Symbol. It was published in The Conflict of Interpretations Essays in Hermeneutics ed. Dan Ihde, Northwestern University Press 1974. If you could get hold of it it might open up new fields of thought. You might also keep in mind the cultural and historical specificity of who the men are you are writing about.
For me being a father is actually about trying to live up to many of the traditional virtues of being a man. Rather than work against the grain of men's understanding of who they are or who they think they need to be, work with it.
Hello
I want to sugest something. Look at your lovely baby that see you as the powerfull provider of all his/her needs.
It's the otherside of the attachment. The parent's one. Some parents may misuse this power but most people will see it as a once in a life chance to bond to your child in a special bont=attachment. It has nothing to do with masculunity but with humanity, parenthood and love. It is much above masculinity
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