Abstract
Until now studies comparing fathers and mothers have mostly been realized in dyadic situations, father-infant versus mother-infant. The aim of the present paper was to bring to the core similarities and differences, between fathers and mothers, in terms of performance (N=42 families) in a triadic context. Father, mother and baby, seated in a triangular formation were invited to play as usual: first, one parent played with the infant and the other was participant-observer, and then they reversed their roles.
Globally, no differences were observed between fathers and mothers in terms of being available, keeping their assigned roles, sharing a common focus of interest and co-creating games with their three month old infant. However a difference emerged when the order in which parents began as active parent versus third party parent was taken into account. Mothers who played first were better active partners than fathers, for keeping roles, sharing focus and co-creating games; and fathers who were first third party parent were better than third party mothers for sharing a common focus.
Résumé
Les études comparatives entre les pères et les mères ont, jusqu’à présent, été conduites dans des situations dyadiques (parent-enfant) et visaient généralement à établir les spécificités des uns et des autres. L’objectif de ce travail, sur 42 couples et leur premier-né âgé de 3 mois, est de mettre en évidence les similitudes et spécificités en termes de performance dans les interactions des pères et des mères dans la situation triadique du Lausanne Trilogue Play. Dans cette situation, chaque parent à tour de rôle interagit avec le bébé en présence de l’autre parent, qui est en position de participant-observateur; les trois partenaires étant installés en triangle.
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The research presented in this article has been supported by the National Swiss Grant (grants 32-52508.97).
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Frascarolo, F., Favez, N. & Fivaz-Depeursinge, E. Fathers’ and mothers’ performances in father-mother-baby games. Eur J Psychol Educ 18, 101–111 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173479
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173479