Fathers' involvement in the care of their infants and their attributions of cognitive competence to infants.

The relation between fathers' involvement in the care of their infants and their attributions of cognitive-social skills to infants was investigated in this study. 160 pairs of parents of 9-month-old infants were interviewed. On the average, fathers were available to their infants 2.75 hours per weekday and spent 45-50 min interacting with them. They performed 1 caretaking activity per day, and took sole responsibility for the infant only about once in 10 days. Results indicate that fathers who are less involved in child care attribute lesser competence to infants than relatively more involved fathers, that fathers in general attribute lesser competence to infants than mothers, and that the more involved a father is in infant care, the less difference there is between his attributions and those of his wife's. These results raise the possibility that involvement in care and perception of infants as cognitively competent are mutually reinforcing.