Testosterone (T) is often positively associated with male sexual behavior and negatively associated with paternal care. These associations have primarily been demonstrated in species where investment in paternal care begins well after mating activity is complete, when offspring are hatched or born. Different patterns may emerge in studies of species where investment in mating and paternal care ...

Glucocorticoids are thought to mediate the disruption of parental behavior in response to acute and chronic stress. Previous research supports their role in chronic stress; however, no study has experimentally tested the effects of acute glucocorticoid elevation on paternal behavior. We tested the prediction that acute corticosterone (CORT) increases would decrease paternal behavior in Californ...

The nonapeptides isotocin (IT) and arginine vasotocin (AVT), along with their mammalian homologs oxytocin and arginine vasopressin, are well known regulators of social behaviors across vertebrate taxa. However, little is known about their involvement in paternal care. Here, we measured the effect of an IT and an AVT V1a receptor antagonist on paternal behaviors in the primarily paternal teleost...

The hypothesis that parental alcoholism and co-occurring antisocial behavior would be indirectly linked to child externalizing behavior problems through child lack of control, current levels of parent depression, family conflict, and parent-child conflict was tested using manifest variable regression analysis. Participants were a community sample of 125 families with an alcoholic father and 83 ...

Maternal and paternal psychological control, peer attitudes, and the interaction of psychological control and peer attitudes at age 13 were examined as predictors of risky sexual behavior before age 16 in a community sample of 181 youth followed from age 13 to 16. Maternal psychological control moderated the link between peer attitudes and sexual behavior. Peer acceptance of early sex predicted...

In a minority of mammalian species, including humans, fathers play a significant role in infant care. Compared to maternal behavior, the neural and hormonal bases of paternal care are poorly understood. We analyzed behavioral, neuronal and neuropeptide responses towards unfamiliar pups in biparental California mice, comparing males housed with another male ("virgin males") or with a female befo...

In laboratory animals, less is known about the neural circuits that mediate paternal behavior than those that influence maternal behavior. In mice, we recently reported that when sires are separated with their mate dams from their pups, ultrasound and pheromonal signals from the dams can evoke and initiate maternal-like retrieval behavior in the sires upon reunion with the offspring; this is te...

Paternal behavior and testosterone plasma levels in the Volcano Mouse Neotomodon alstoni (Rodentia: Muridae). Although initially it was thought that testosterone inhibited the display of paternal behavior in males of rodents, it has been shown that in some species high testosterone levels are needed for exhibition of paternal care. In captivity, males of Volcano Mouse (Neotomodon alstoni) provi...

Parental care has been demonstrated to have important effects on offspring behavioral development. California mice (Peromyscus californicus) are biparental, and correlational evidence suggests that pup retrieving by fathers has important effects on the development of aggressive behavior and extra-hypothalamic vasopressin systems. We tested whether retrievals affected these systems by manipulati...