In the last decades there has been a change in the way gender roles are perceived, with women accumulating responsibilities both in family and in the labor-force, and with an increased expectation that fathers should participate more in the family life, especially in childcare, and with men themselves (at least some) wanting to be more involved. Despite the progressive social changes, the policies developed to promote children’s healthy development remain mainly focus on mothers, with fathers being often considered mainly as the breadwinner and the play mate, or the help (“babysitters”) when mothers need. From an evolutionary point of view primate, human and non-human, infants/children are manly care for by their mothers. But there are some species (e.g., marmosets, titi monkeys) where parental care is primarily done by males, or where they are extremely involved. In this sense, it is important to describe and understand the contexts in which parental involvement occurs, but also the characteristics and quality of fathers’ behaviors to better understand how they impact child development. Thus, the main goal of this project is to contribute to the growth of empirical knowledge on fathers and their impact on children, with the underlying intent to empirically sustain social and educational policies for families and children well-being. It is organized in three main studies aiming to: 1) Draw lessons from non-human primates, examining supportive paternal behavior and its contexts in both human and non-human primates; 2) Analyze the contexts of father’s involvement and the quality of his behaviors (sensitivity and intrusiveness, physical/rough play quality), considering potential socio-demographic risk variables (e.g. education level, number of individuals in the household, family income, employment status) that could impact father’s involvement (in type, amount and quality); 3) Explore the effects of contexts and quality of father’s behaviors in the quality of observed peer-play behaviors (one year later), testing the mediating role of emotion and behavioral regulation.

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Human and Non-Human Primates; Paternal Involvement; Quality of Paternal Behaviors; Emotional and behavioral Regulation; Play Quality

• Psychology - Social Sciences