António J. Santos

António J. Santos holds a Licentiateship in Clinical Psychology from Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (Lisbon, Portugal) and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology (Profile: Research) from the Université du Québec à Montréal, (Québec) Canada. He was a visiting scholar at the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, AL, USA. He was a leading investigator in several FCT funded projects and a founding member of the Portuguese Society of Ethology and Portuguese Association of Primatology. 
He is currently a member and regional coordinator for Portugal of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, as well as a member of the Society for Research in Child Development amongst others. He has published in several national and international scientific reviews, namely Análise Psicológica, Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Social Development, Social Networks, acta ethologica and International Journal of Primatology, amongst others. He delivered oral presentations at the top international developmental conferences, having also been invited to give keynote addresses and organizing symposia in his specific field of research. He acted as a consultant on several international research projects, namely in Canada and USA.
His major research area is the study of peer relations in child and adolescent social development. His major research objective is to complement traditional psychological individual differences approaches to children’s social status and social competence with a broader socioethological understanding of the social impact from local affiliative niches (e.g. friendship relationships, subgroup membership) emerging from the peer group socioecology.