L’interaction précoce parent–bébé à travers le prisme du père. Un regard rétrospectif sur la recherche des dernières décennies

Abstract

After many years of research focused on the mother-infant dyad, the literature has gradually turned its attention to father-infant interactions. This literature review aims to provide a synthesis of knowledge on the father-infant dyad. Thus, the first part summarizes a set of works that have explored paternal behaviour within the father-baby dyad in comparison with maternal behaviour observed within the mother-baby dyad. In the second part, the article explores the early father-baby exchange as a subsystem of the family system, a triadic approach which allows a direct comparison of the two parents and gives access to different dyadic configurations. A third part presents more contemporary studies, carried out in particular from the neonatal period, with a look at the situations of vulnerability which remain less invested when it comes to the father than when it comes to the mother. Finally, we end the article with a reflection on the father, a partner of the baby who is still understudied, in a societal context that is nonetheless evolving in terms of the place he is given.