Dogs and Children's Development in a Northern Plains Tribe

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然近年来人类与动物互动（HAI）领域取得了重要进展，但与社区环境中儿童与动物的全方位接触尚未发生，在美国印第安人农村保留地的工作是一个特别显著的差距。考虑到这些社区中流浪狗的数量，基于宠物所有权的HAI模型在多大程度上适用于思考狗如何满足儿童的需求，这是一个重要的问题。这个项目建立在俄克拉荷马大学应用社会研究中心的教职员工和蒙大拿州黑脚民族成员之间的合作关系之上，他们正在努力恢复他们的孩子和他们的狗之间的尊重关系。该项目有三个具体目的：1)探索狗对当代黑足家庭的意义；2)描述当代黑足社区中狗与儿童之间的互动；3)阐明一种改善与狗的互动的模式，以改善儿童的结果。作为一笔小额赠款，该项目主要目的是产生知识以支持干预发展，它采用参与式和人种学方法，但其明确目标是支持未来更大规模的多学科努力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While the field of human-animal interaction (HAI) has made important advances in recent years, engagement with the full range of children's experiences with animals in community settings has yet to occur, and work in rural American Indian reservations is an especially notable gap. Given the extent of roaming dogs in many of these communities, there are significant questions about the extent to which models of HAI based on pet ownership may be applicable to thinking about how dogs can address children's needs. This project builds upon a partnership between faculty and staff from the University of Oklahoma's Center for Applied Social Research and members of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, who are leading an effort to restore respectful relationships between their children and their dogs. The project has three specific aims: 1) to explore the meaning of dogs to contemporary Blackfeet families; 2) to describe interactions between dogs and children in contemporary Blackfeet communities; and 3) to articulate a model for improving interactions with dogs with the goal of improving children's outcomes. As a small grant, with the primary aim of generating knowledge to support intervention development, the project utilizes participatory and ethnographic methods, but does so with the express goal of supporting larger multidisciplinary efforts in the future.