A Time to Say Goodbye: Empathy and Emotion Regulation Predict Timing of End-of-Life Decisions by Pet Owners

J. Vonk, Esther Maria Corina Bouma, A. Dijkstra
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引用次数: 4

Abstract

Little is known about how pet owners make end-of-life (EoL) decisions regarding their pets. We analyzed data from 1542 pet owners from North America and Europe that had made EoL decisions involving their dogs (n = 546) or cats (n=996). We measured participants’ empathy towards animals, emotion regulation, and attitudes toward pets, and asked for demographic information about themselves and the most recent pet that they had euthanized. We asked them to indicate a preference for making a decision too early versus too late, the stage of an illness or injury at which they had made their decision to euthanize, and the amount of guilt they felt for making a decision too early and too late. We hypothesized that individuals with high levels of empathy would prioritize the reduction of their pet’s suffering and would therefore make earlier decisions and feel greater guilt for having made decisions too late. This might be especially true for those with low emotion regulation as they might have more difficulty managing their own distress related to the pet’s condition. In addition, we recognized that pet owners would also consider their desire to extend the pet’s life - particularly when they had strong positive attitudes toward pets. Contrary to our predictions, those with higher reported empathy for animals were more likely to make decisions to euthanize at later stages compared to earlier stages. Cat owners made decisions later compared to dog owners. Higher levels of empathy and lower levels of emotion regulation predicted guilt for both early and late decisions. Further work is needed to explore how various owner characteristics impact EoL decisions. Our study makes a first attempt to understand this complex issue.
是时候说再见了:移情和情绪调节预测宠物主人临终决定的时间
人们对宠物主人如何对他们的宠物做出生命终结(EoL)决定知之甚少。我们分析了来自北美和欧洲的1542名宠物主人的数据,这些人都曾做出过与他们的狗(n= 546)或猫(n=996)有关的EoL决定。我们测量了参与者对动物的同理心、情绪调节和对宠物的态度,并询问了他们自己和最近安乐死的宠物的人口统计信息。我们要求他们说明他们对过早或过晚做出决定的偏好,他们在疾病或受伤的哪个阶段做出安乐死决定,以及他们对过早或过晚做出决定的内疚感。我们假设,同理心水平高的人会优先考虑减轻宠物的痛苦,因此会更早做出决定,并对太晚做出决定感到更大的内疚。对于那些情绪调节能力低的人来说尤其如此,因为他们可能更难以管理自己与宠物状况相关的痛苦。此外,我们认识到宠物主人也会考虑他们延长宠物寿命的愿望——特别是当他们对宠物有强烈的积极态度时。与我们的预测相反,那些对动物有更高同理心的人,与早期相比,更有可能在后期做出安乐死的决定。养猫的人比养狗的人更晚做出决定。较高的同理心水平和较低的情绪调节水平预示着早期和晚期决策的罪恶感。需要进一步的工作来探索不同的所有者特征如何影响EoL决策。我们的研究首次尝试理解这个复杂的问题。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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