Companion Animal Bonding Research Articles

Re-Evaluation of the Companion Animal Bonding Scale

ABSTRACTThis study re-evaluated the Companion Animal Bonding Scale (Poresky, Hendrix, Mosier and Samuelson 1987) using a wide range of developmental levels. Participants included 714 individuals (284 boys and 430 girls) from fourth grade to undergraduate college status. The elementary, middle, and high school students were enrolled in a public school system in a large metropolitan area and the college students were enrolled in a medium size state university. The sample included 600 Caucasians and 114 members of other ethnic groups. Only responses from current pet owners (n=610) were included in data analysis. Analysis of the Companion Animal Bonding Scale revealed three factors related to human-animal attachment: (1) emotional bond/affectional tie, (2) physical proximity, and (3) caretaking. The caretaking factor found in this study differs from the third factor (animal responsiveness and autonomy) reported by Poresky et al. (1987). The three factors in this study also differ somewhat from those reported by Poresky (1997). The results of this study are discussed within the context of attachment theory.

The Companion Animal Bonding Scale: Internal Consistency and Factor Structure When Administered by Telephone

The performance of the 8-item Companion Animal Bonding Scale as a self-report behavioral measure of the human-animal relationship when administered as part of a telephone interview is described. For 784 respondents Cronbach alpha for internal consistency was .74 and the SPSS for Windows Principal Components factor analysis of its internal structure yielded two factors which accounted for 55% of the scale's variance. These results are similar to the scale's Cronbach alpha of .82 and the first two of the three factors which accounted for 56% of the variance when the scale was included in a written questionnaire.

Sex, Childhood Pets and Young Adults' Self-Concept Scores

The Tennessee Self-concept Scale and Companion Animal Bonding Scale were administered to 394 university students to determine the influence of pets on adults' self-concept scores. No significant main effects of sex, type of companion animal, or human-animal bond were found. Significant interactions, but no main effects were found for those who listed only dogs or cats as their most important childhood pet. The interaction of childhood pet by sex indicated that boys with dogs and girls with cats had higher scores and girls with dogs and boys with cats had lower self-concept scores. These results support the hypothesis that children's relationships with companion animals are linked to their adult self-concept scores in a complex interactive manner rather than as direct simple effects.

Pet Bonding and Pet Bereavement Among Adolescents

The authors studied adolescent‐pet bonding and bereavement following pet loss. Three hypotheses were entertained: (a) Adolescents who are highly bonded to a pet experience more intense grief when it dies than do those less bonded: (b) degree of bonding, when measured by self‐disclosure, is greater for girls than for boys; and (c) intensity of bereavement is greater for girls than for boys. To test the hypotheses and provide descriptive data about bonding to various species, 55 adolescents who had recently experienced pet death were administered background questionnaires, Companion Animal Bonding Scales (Poresky, Hendrix, & Mosier, 1987), Pet Attitude Scales (Poresky, Hendrix, & Mosier, 1988), and Texas Inventory of Grief Scales (Faschingbauer, 1981). Results supported the hypotheses. Suggestions for counselors are offered.

Pet Ownership and the Reliability of the Companion Animal Bonding Scale Among Participants of the Multicenter Aids Cohort Study

ABSTRACTA psychometric evaluation of the Companion Animal Bonding Scale (CABS) was conducted among participants of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). In 1991, MACS participants in Baltimore, Chicago, and Los Angeles were asked to complete a questionnaire about pets, which included the CABS for their favorite pet. Follow-up questionnaires were administered to Los Angeles participants in 1992 and 1993. Internal consistency and intraobserver reliability of the CABS were determined by measuring the Cronbach alpha and test-retest-retest correlation coefficient, respectively. Forty-eight percent of respondents (907/1,872) at the three sites owned pets, of whom 896 (99%) completed a CABS. The Cronbach alpha for the CABS was .79. Among Los Angeles participants, the test-retest-retest correlation coefficient for the 228 pet owners who completed the CABS for the same pet in each of the three years was .81, and was highest among the 98 dog owners (.86) and the 92 cat owners (.86). The Companion Animal Bonding...

Differential Effects of Pet Presence and Pet-Bonding on Young Children

Pets have been shown to influence human development, but whether the effect is due to the presence of a pet or to the person's relationship with a pet is uncertain. Mothers rated their young children's companion animal bond (relationship) and social competence on a parental questionnaire, and a researcher assessed the children's empathy, cooperation, and intelligence during home visits. Significant correlations were noted between the children's bonds with their companion animals and their scores on the social competency scales as well as their empathy scores. The lack of similar significant pet presence ("ownership") correlations supports the hypothesis that the children's relationships with their pets are more important than just the presence of one or more pets in their homes.

The Young Children's Empathy Measure: Reliability, Validity and Effects of Companion Animal Bonding

The Young Children's Empathy Measure is a brief measure of young children's cognitive and affective perspective taking developed to assess preschool children's empathy. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of internal reliability for the empathy score was acceptable and interrater reliability across four rates was very high. The children's empathy scores were correlated with their ages and social development, but not with their IQs. Empathy toward children was correlated with empathy for pets, and children with a strong pet bond had higher scores on empathy for children than young children without pets.

Children's Pets and Adults' Self-Concepts

ABSTRACT Self-concepts of adults were related to the age when they had their first pet. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) (Fitts, 1965) Total Positive self-concept scores were higher if subjects were under 6 years or over 10 years old than if they were between 6 and 10 years old when they had their first pet. Similar results were found for the TSCS Physical and Social subscales. Whereas gender effects were also found, no significant pet ownership or other childhood Companion Animal Bonding Scale (Poresky, Hendrix, Mosier, & Samuelson, 1987) effects were found.

Young children's companion animal bonding and adults' pet attitudes: a retrospective study.

Adults' attitudes toward pets were related to their ages when they had their first pets and the bonds they formed with their most important pets. Contemporary pet attitudes were more strongly related to childhood bonding scores than contemporary bonding scores. Adults' contemporary attitudes toward pets were positively correlated with their retrospective childhood Companion Animal Bonding scores. The Companion Animal Semantic Differential pet attitude measures were also most positive for those who had a first pet when they were younger than 6 yr. and least positive for those who had a first pet when they were over 10 yr. old. The childhood bonding scores were more predictive of contemporary pet attitudes than contemporary bonding scores. No significant differences were found between pet owners and nonowners.

The Companion Animal Semantic Differential: Long and Short Form Reliability and Validity

The Companion Animal Semantic Differential consists of 18 bipolar semantic differential word pairs for assessing the respondent's perception of a childhood companion animal. The measure was administered by questionnaire to a sample of 188 students. The Cronbach alpha internal reliability coefficient was 0.90 for the 18-item scale. The construct validity of the scale was indicated by its significant correlations with the evaluative factor of the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood Companion Animal Bonding Scale of .31 and .54, respectively. Factor analysis identified a short 9-item form as a one-dimensional measure of the respondent's affective attitude toward his or her pet. The short form's Cronbach alpha was .88 and its correlations with the affective factors of the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood Companion Animal Bonding Scales were .24 and .50, respectively. The measure is included.

The Companion Animal Bonding Scale: Internal Reliability and Construct Validity

The literature on the relationship of companion animals and children shows only a weak effect of human-animal bonding on child development. The use of “pet ownership” or cohabitation rather than the relationship or interaction between the child and the animal as a measure of bonding appears to be a serious and limiting deficiency, which impaired the empirical evidence concerning the development and effects of human-animal bonding. The Companion Animal Bonding Scale is an 8-item behavioral scale describing the extent of child-animal activities. The scale was administered by questionnaire with a childhood focus and a contemporary focus to 121 high school and college students. The Cronbach alpha estimates of internal reliability were 0.82 and 0.77, respectively. Construct validity was indicated by significant correlations between scores on the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood and contemporary bonding scale of .39 and .40, respectively.