The Impact of Human-Animal Interaction on Adjustment of Children Exposed to Adverse Family Environments

项目总结 在不利的环境中澄清人-动物相互作用与儿童适应之间的关系 童年经历对于理解家中的动物如何影响儿童的发展至关重要。 HAI可能既具有保护作用，又对儿童的发展和福祉构成额外的风险。它是 有充分的证据表明，接触虐待动物(AM)的情况很普遍，并经常与其他 各种形式的逆境。尽管先前的研究将儿童AM暴露与短期和长期联系在一起 失调，之前的大多数研究都依赖于一个过于简单的二分法指数，它确实 没有解决AM暴露的复杂性和/或没有考虑到共同发生的不良经历。这个 缺乏可靠和有效的工具阻碍了描绘AM暴露和积极方面的努力 HAI(例如，对宠物的依恋)在共生的背景下相互作用并影响儿童的发展 逆境。该项目有两个目标，旨在解决这些限制并推动HAI研究 对PAR-18-650的回应：1)开发与动物相关的青少年经历清单(CARE-Y)，这是一种新的 对儿童和青少年使用有效和可靠的AM暴露的测量，以及2)使用 CARE-Y收集试点数据，为纵向R01奠定基础，这将更严格地测试风险和 HAI对儿童逆境与儿童健康和发展关系的保护作用我们会 招募有目的的儿童样本(7-17岁)，他们经历过或有高风险经历过， 儿童时期的不良事件，并且在过去12个月中在他们的住所中至少有一只宠物。 在第一阶段，我们将招募25对照顾者-儿童参与将为测量提供信息的面试 开发程序。在第二阶段，我们将从250对儿童照顾者那里收集数据。我们的评估 战略将包括多个告密者和关于儿童受害经历的既定措施， HAI(对宠物的依恋和积极参与)和儿童适应(认知情绪调节， 社会技能、内化和外化行为，以及创伤后应激)。第2阶段的数据将为 用于审查：(A)心理测量特性(目标1)和CARE-Y的有效性(目标2)，以及(B)关系 在不良童年经历、AM暴露、HAI和社会情绪调整之间(目标3)。这个 拟议的项目具有创新性和重要性，因为它将使用科学严谨的方法(结构 方程建模和项目反应理论)，以建立基于 儿童的经历充分反映了这一结构的复杂性和多面性 在不同的样本中。它旨在提供关键工具和初步知识 在不利的家庭环境背景下，研究HAI对儿童发展的影响的纵向研究。 在本项目结束时，我们将更好地了解儿童与宠物的互动如何影响儿童 幸福。

PROJECT SUMMARY Clarifying relations between human-animal interaction (HAI) and child adjustment in the context of adverse childhood experiences is critical for understanding how animals in the home impact children's development. HAI may confer both protective effects and pose additional risks to children's development and wellbeing. It is well documented that exposure to animal maltreatment (AM) is prevalent and frequently co-occurs with other forms of adversity. Although prior research links childhood AM exposure with short- and long-term maladjustment, the majority of prior research has relied on an overly simplistic dichotomous index that does not address the complexity of AM exposure and/or fails to account for co-occurring adverse experiences. The lack of a reliable and valid instrument has hindered efforts to delineate how AM exposure and positive aspects of HAI (e.g., attachment to pets) interact and influence children's development in the context of co-occurring adversities. This project has two goals designed to address these limitations and advance HAI research in response to PAR-18-650: 1) to develop the Youth Checklist of Animal-Related Experiences (CARE-Y), a new measure of exposure to AM that is valid and reliable for use with children and adolescents, and 2) to use the CARE-Y to collect pilot data to lay the groundwork for a longitudinal R01 that will more rigorously test risk and protective effects of HAI on relations between childhood adversity and child health and development. We will recruit a purposive sample of children (7-17 years) who have experienced, or are at high risk for experiencing, adverse childhood events, and have or have had at least one pet in their residence over the past 12 months. During Phase 1, we will recruit 25 caregiver-child pairs to participate in interviews that will inform measurement development procedures. During Phase 2, we will collect data from 250 child-caregiver pairs. Our assessment strategy will include multiple informants and well-established measures of children's victimization experiences, HAI (attachment to and positive engagement with pets), and child adjustment (cognitive emotion regulation, social skills, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and posttraumatic stress). Data from Phase 2 will be used to examine: (a) psychometric properties (Aim 1) and validity of the CARE-Y (Aim 2), and (b) relations between adverse childhood experiences, AM exposure, HAI, and socioemotional adjustment (Aim 3). The proposed project is innovative and important because it will use scientifically rigorous approaches (structural equation modeling and item response theory) to establish an ecologically relevant measure grounded in the experiences of children that adequately captures the complexity and multidimensional nature of this construct in a diverse sample. It is designed to provide critical instrumentation and preliminary knowledge for a longitudinal study to examine the impact of HAI on child development in the context of adverse family settings. At the end of this project, we will have a better understanding of how child-pet interactions may influence child wellbeing.