INFLUENCE OF ATTITUDES, FORMATIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND ON INTENTION OF USE OF ANIMAL-ASSISTED INTERVENTIONS DEVELOPED WITH DOGS. SOME CONCLUSIONS ON A SAMPLE OF ROMANIAN STUDENTS.

Previous literature shows that animal-assisted interventions (AAI) have high acceptance among professionals from different fields, although this would be more related to personal experience with pet keeping than to empirical evidence of their benefits. Present study analyzes the impact of attitudes toward AAI, experience with animals, and the formative background on the intention of use for AAI in a sample of N=167 Romanian Social Sciences students (X=21.3, SD=1.47; 87% female). Measurement involved the adaptation of the CAINTAP (Attitudes Towards Dog- Assisted Interventions Questionnaire), a two-scale instrument that showed appropriate psychometric values (RMSEA=.075; Cronbach's alphas >.800 for both positive and negative attitudes scales). Two conclusions are drawn: there is a high interest in the practical applications of the AAI among consulted students (around 89%), although it does not derive from actual knowledge of their real effectiveness, but from personal interest in pets. These findings should be taken into account to facilitate the professional, based on the evidence development of AAI in Romania and other countries where they are not ingrained yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]