O envolvimento paterno de crian？as a frequentar o jardim-de-infancia

the aim of the study was to understand fathers’ participation in different types of activities: direct and indirect care; teaching/discipline; play; and outside leisure. 338 bi-parental families from lisbon/portugal, participated in the study. associations between fathers/mothers individual characteristics (e.g., age and educational level) as well as children’s (e.g., age, gender, order of birth and number of brothers), as well as context/social support variables (e.g., working schedule, number of hours children spend at pre-school) and father’s type and amount of involvement were analyzed. the study also sought to find the possibility of the existence of different groups of involvement. the results indicate that a father’s involvement usually fluctuates depending on the activity, however also decreasing in fields such as care, where mothers assume more responsibility but increase in other fields where there is a shared involvement. the input of paternal responsibility has also been noted to increase based on several differences such as the number of hours the mother spends at work, the maternal qualifications and child’s age. results also showed the existence of different groups of involvement (paternal and maternal), particularly those such as the active, intermediate and the traditional where characteristics were studied as well as agreements between both parents.