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

项目摘要 澄清人与动物的相互作用（HAI）和儿童在不良环境中的适应之间的关系 童年的经历对于了解家中的动物如何影响儿童的发展至关重要。 HAI既可能产生保护作用，也可能对儿童的发育和健康构成额外风险。是 有充分的证据表明，暴露于动物虐待（AM）是普遍的，并经常与其他疾病同时发生。 逆境的形式。尽管先前的研究将儿童期AM暴露与短期和长期 由于适应不良，大多数先前的研究都依赖于一个过于简单的二分法指数， 没有解决AM暴露的复杂性和/或未能解释同时发生的不良经历。的 缺乏一个可靠和有效的工具阻碍了描述AM暴露和积极方面的努力 HAI的（例如，对宠物的依恋）在共同发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，旨在解决这些限制和推进人工智能研究， 响应PAR-18-650：1）制定动物相关经验的青年清单（CARE-Y），一个新的 对儿童和青少年使用有效和可靠的AM暴露测量，以及2）使用 CARE-Y收集试点数据，为纵向R 01奠定基础，该纵向R 01将更严格地测试风险， HAI对儿童期逆境与儿童健康和发展之间关系的保护作用。我们将 招募一个有目的的儿童样本（7-17岁），他们经历过，或有高风险经历， 不良儿童事件，并且在过去12个月内在其住所中拥有或曾经拥有至少一只宠物。 在第一阶段，我们将招募25对男女儿童参加访谈，了解测量结果 发展程序。在第二阶段，我们将从250对儿童-看护者中收集数据。我们的评估 战略将包括多个举报人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，以及创伤后压力）。第2阶段的数据将 用于检查：（a）心理测量学特性（目标1）和CARE-Y（目标2）的有效性，以及（B）关系 不良童年经历、AM暴露、HAI和社会情绪适应之间的关系（目标3）。的 拟议的项目是创新和重要的，因为它将使用科学严谨的方法（结构 方程模型和项目反应理论），以建立一个生态相关的措施， 儿童的经验，充分抓住这一结构的复杂性和多层面的性质 in a diverse多样化sample样品.它的目的是提供关键的仪器和初步的知识， 在不利的家庭环境下，进行纵向研究，以检查HAI对儿童发展的影响。 在这个项目的最后，我们将有一个更好的了解如何儿童宠物的互动可能会影响儿童 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.