Search

Relatively little is known about how attachment influences children’s relationships to pets or mediates positive and negative interaction outcomes. We carried out in-depth interviews with 27 children, including nine children at high-risk for animal harm and 18 matched controls. We used the Child Attachment Play Assessment (CAPA), a drawing task and self-report measures including the Short Attachment to Pets Scale (SAPS) and Children’s Animal Harm Behaviours (CAHB). We also designed a novel measure, the ‘Pets In Children’s Attachment Stories’ (PICAS), to probe children’s mentalising about pets, caregiving-behaviours, comfort from pet and parental help. Children at high risk of animal harm were more likely to be classified as insecure (p = 0.002). Drawings indicated secure children tended to feel closer to mothers (p = 0.014) and siblings (p = 0.007), while pets’ proximity did not vary according to attachment strategy. Although insecure children scored lower on mentalising (p = 0.013), caregiving behaviour (p = 0.028) and parental help (p = 0.002), both groups similarly used pets as sources of comfort. There were no differences between attachment patterns on SAPS but there were differences for CAHB scores (p = 0.048). Thus, although insecure attachment was an important risk factor for harming animals, secure and insecure children had similar capacity for bonding with their pets. These results have implications both for how we treat cases of childhood animal harm and for how we understand the supportive role pets can play in children’s lives.

Despite growing awareness of the psychological issues associated with childhood animal cruelty, there is a scarcity of research carried out directly with children. This study investigates the psychological factors influencing the likelihood of a child harming animals, specifically the roles of attachment, empathy, executive functioning, issues related to externalizing behavior, and Callous Unemotional (CU) traits. The sample comprised children at high risk of animal harm referred to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal's Animal Guardians program (n = 9) and low-risk controls (n = 18) matched for age and school class. A range of assessment techniques was used over three interview sessions for each child. Externalizing problems were measured using teacher reports; attachment was blind-coded using the Child Attachment Play Assessment; executive functioning was assessed using a Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS); and empathy was measured using self-report and picture-based tasks, the Kids Empathy Development Scale. Children at high risk of animal harm were more likely to be insecurely attached (p = 0.002), scored significantly higher on Strengths and Difficulties (U = 1.5, p < 0.001) and CU traits (U = 6.4, p = 0.001) as rated by their teachers, scored lower on cognitive empathy (U = 36.5, p = 0.043), and performed more poorly on the DCCS test of executive functioning (U = 31.0, p = 0.014). No significant differences were found between high-risk and low-risk children on self-reported empathy or emotion recognition. We also found that insecure attachment was related to an increased score for many psychological risk factors. This exploratory study demonstrates that childhood animal harm can act as an indicator of a range of psychological issues and highlights the importance of designing appropriate interventions for this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reder and Duncan's well-known studies of the 1990s on fatal child abuse drew attention to how parental scripts regarding their children could dangerously distort relationships in ways that were sometimes fatal to children. This article reports on a new system for assessing the 'meaning of the child to the parent', called the Meaning of the Child Interview (MotC). Parents are interviewed using the established Parent Development Interview, or equivalent, and the transcript of the interview is then analysed according to parental sensitivity and likely risk to the child. The MotC constructs were developed from those used in observed parent-child interaction (specifically, the CARE-Index) and the form of discourse analysis used in the Dynamic Maturational Model - Adult Attachment Interview, allowing a more systemic and inter-subjective understanding of parenting representations than often put forward. This article discusses the theoretical background to the MotC, gives a brief review of similar measures and then introduces the coding system and patterns of caregiving. The validity of the MotC is addressed elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]