Assessing Children's Relationships with Pet Dogs: A Multi-Method Approach.

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Human-Animal Interaction
• Developmental Science

Background:

• Child-dog relationships offer benefits, but lack validated assessment tools.
• Existing measures often focus only on positive aspects and rely on self-reports.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate multiple measures for assessing both positive and negative features of children's relationships with pet dogs.
• To provide reliable tools for future research on child-pet interactions.

Main Methods:

• Assessed six qualities (Affection, Nurturance, Emotional Support, Companionship, Friction, Pets as Substitutes) in 115 children (ages 9-14) and their pet dogs.
• Utilized child questionnaires, parent questionnaires, and daily child reports of interactions.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated substantial convergence across different observers and measurement methods.
• Positive relationship qualities showed overlap and were distinct from negative qualities (Friction).

Conclusions:

• The study successfully developed and tested new tools for assessing children's relationships with pet dogs.
• These validated measures can advance research on the impact of pet ownership on child development.