Human-Animal Interactions最新文献

{"title":"A mixed-methods examination of an on-campus canine-assisted intervention by gender: Women, men, and gender-diverse individuals’ self-reports of stress-reduction and well-being","authors":"John-Tyler Binfet, Freya L.L. Green, Rebecca J.P. Godard, Madisyn M. Szypula, Camille X. Rousseau, Jordy Decker","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract On-campus canine-assisted interventions (CAIs) provide opportunities for college students to interact with therapy dog-handler teams and are considered a low-cost and low-barrier way for students to reduce their stress and bolster their well-being. Across studies, we see participant samples comprised predominantly of women participants. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of a 20-min CAI on the well-being of women ( n = 80), men ( n = 54), and gender-diverse ( n = 28; i.e., non-binary, genderfluid, and two-spirit) participants. Across all gender conditions, significant pre-to-post increases in well-being (i.e., campus connectedness, happiness, positive affect, or optimism) and decreases in ill-being (i.e., homesickness, loneliness, negative affect, anxiety, or stress) were found. Controlling for pre-test scores, there was no significant effect of gender on any of the well-being or ill-being. Findings corroborate previous research attesting to the efficacy of CAIs in enhancing the social and emotional well-being of students and suggest that CAIs are equally effective across participants of varied genders.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135883872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Breast cancer survivors’ experiences of pet ownership: A qualitative analysis","authors":"Jennifer Currin-McCulloch, Lori R. Kogan, Amelia Malone, Savannah Schwab, Linda S. Cook","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0035","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Research suggests that the emotional bond shared with a pet can be particularly significant for those with declining physical health, yet little is known about breast cancer survivors’ experiences with pet ownership. The purpose of this study was to explore breast cancer survivors’ pet-related experiences including the benefits, challenges, and unmet needs. Adults (ages 18 and older), diagnosed with stages 0 ( in situ )-IV breast cancer and currently the primary owner of at least one dog or cat for at least 6 months were recruited through cancer treatment and support organizations and pet and breast cancer social media outlets. An online, anonymous, cross-sectional, mixed method survey was developed that included seven open-ended prompts to explore the stressors and benefits breast cancer survivors encountered in caring for a pet during cancer treatment and survivorship, as well as their advice for medical providers and other breast cancer survivors. Breast cancer survivors ( n = 221) responded to the online survey between July and November 2022. Researchers used the thematic analysis method to analyze salient themes in the data and descriptive statistics to summarize participants’ sociodemographic variables. The seven open-ended prompts resulted in four key themes: my furry reason to keep fighting; seeking quality care resources; my pets are my family; and someone special is waiting for you . Findings from this study suggest practical ways that medical and mental health providers and communities can enhance the well-being of survivors and support the invaluable relationships with their pets.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"111 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136210451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Feasibility of using ecological momentary assessment to measure the effects of interactions with pet dogs on psychophysiological reactivity in adolescents with social anxiety","authors":"Erin K. King, Eli D. Halbreich, Eric C. Anderson, Megan K. Mueller","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0036","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Adolescence is a key developmental period for the onset of social anxiety, as it is a time of social transitions and stressors. Therefore, it is important to identify protective factors within the environment that can prevent and/or reduce the effects of social anxiety in addition to existing evidence-based treatments. The presence of a supportive pet dog may be one way of reducing the effects of acute social stressors for youth, but these effects have not been tested robustly in real-world settings. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to assess physiological responses to pet interactions in real-life scenarios among adolescents with social anxiety ( n = 37). Results indicated that this protocol was perceived as feasible by youth participants and allowed for integration across different data streams. Participant use of a wearable sensor to collect electrodermal activity was generally successful, with an average of 12 h of data collected per participant. However, the use of a timestamp button on the sensor was not an effective strategy for data collection. These findings suggest that EMA using self-report activity diary data combined with continuous psychophysiological measurement using wearable sensors is generally a feasible person-centered approach for measuring adolescent-dog interactions in a way that maintains ecological validity.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136352415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Parental status influences human-to-pet caregiving behaviors, attachment, and attitudes in a Finnish sample","authors":"Shelly Volsche, Sydney Schultz, Sara Alsaifi, Marika Melamies, Jari Pulkkinen","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0019","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A growing body of literature suggests people are choosing to forego parenthood, bringing companion animals into the home as a focus for people’s attachment and caretaking behavior instead. This emergent “pet parenting” can be defined as the parent-like investment in companion animals and has been linked to countries that are experiencing or have experienced the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) marked by subreplacement fertility, changing marriage norms, increased educational attainment, and a flexible life orientation no longer focused solely on reproduction. In this research, we sought to determine if Finland, a country where the SDT has already been evidenced, is also experiencing an emergence of pet parenting and whether there is a difference between parents’, nonparents’, and future parents’ attachment and caregiving behaviors toward companion animals in the home. A total of 857 participants completed an online survey delivered in Finnish and English which included demographic questions, the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), and a series of questions designed to probe topics regarding the training of companion animals, generalized caretaking, and the ascription of personhood or autonomy to companion animals under the respondent’s care. Future parents reported more agreement across all scales of the LAPS, followed by nonparents than parents. Future parents also reported more frequency of behaviors associated with Affective Responsiveness , while nonparents reported more frequency of behaviors associated with Training and Play and General Care . From our results, we argue that Finland does seem to be experiencing the emergence of pet parenting, likely in response to the SDT, and this is demonstrated by marked differences in attachment and caregiving behaviors directed at companion animals in the home.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"156 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135423953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Human-animal interactions from an evolutionary perspective: Symbioses as extended ultrasociality","authors":"H. D. Steklis, Netzin G. Steklis, Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre, A. J. Figueredo","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0028","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The field of human-animal interactions (HAI) is focused primarily on human-companion animal relationships, especially the impact of such relationships on human health. Here, we demonstrate how a wider, integrative approach, consisting of an evolutionary framework, provides new insights into the varieties of HAIs and their emergence and significance during human evolution. Along with other HAI researchers, we show that those HAIs which develop into interrelationships can best be treated as ecological symbioses that involve fitness interdependence among the symbionts and entail the evolution of phenotypic traits that support the adaptive features of the symbionts. We present the novel idea that the formation of mutualistic symbiotic relationships through the process of domestication depended on the prior evolution of hominin hypersociality and ultrasociality in modern humans. Hypersociality was characterized by high levels of social cooperation and social tolerance that became increasingly important for human social life and cooperative hunting. The further development of ultrasociality in modern humans consisted of the development of large-scale (i.e., beyond the hunting band) cooperative social networks of genetically unrelated individuals. This depended on the evolution of further enhancements in socio-cognitive skills, especially representational abilities (e.g., theory of mind), symbolic capacities, and formation of tribal societies with complex social institutions. These modern cognitive and socio-cultural features were made possible by significant brain reorganization during the past 60,000 years. Tribal social institutions were founded on normative moral sentiments and behavior and regulated and ultimately reduced levels of lethal violence. The extension of fitness interdependent, cooperative relationships to large networks of unrelated individuals (i.e., ultrasociality), we argue, was foundational in modern humans to the formation of mutualistic symbioses (i.e., process of domestication) with other animals. Because they are an outgrowth of ultrasociality, we suggest that the term “extended ultrasociality” appropriately describes human interrelationships with domesticated animals. We further suggest that these human-animal interrelationships are unique in that they become imbued with and immersed in our symbolic world, as is demonstrated by the earliest representational art in caves after 50,000 years when enhanced modern human representational and symbolic capacities were evolving. An evolutionary framework invites new questions and avenues for research.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114500662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Determining consistency in the attitudes and actions of providers of animal-assisted services regarding their alignment with standards and ethical practice","authors":"Amy Johnson, P. Cameron, Melissa Trevathan-Minnis","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0026","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The current mixed methods study sought to investigate the actual as well as the perceived practices and alignment with animal-assisted interventions (AAI) ethics and standards of mental health practitioners that partner with an animal in their practice. While the quantitative findings suggested awareness and integration of standards and ethical practice, the qualitative results painted a somewhat different picture. Qualitative findings suggest a great deal of inconsistency in the attitudes and actions of practitioners regarding their alignment with standards and ethical practice. These inconsistencies are explored and then followed by specific recommendations regarding training and education, supervision, informed consent practices, documentation, and humane treatment for animal partners.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116487994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs)\u0000 in situ\u0000 , relationship, and context: AAI as adjunct practice in healthcare and animal-informed education","authors":"C. Hanrahan, Amberlee Boulton","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) include and promote multisensory and somatic experiences in therapeutic, educational, and activity-based contexts. Sensory experiences, however, for animal co-workers and others in AAI practice, including the spaces in which AAI takes place, need further exploration not only to facilitate formalized animal and client safety in place-based contexts, but also to illuminate future directions for improved non-anthropocentric ‘animal-informed’ AAI. In Canada, where there is no coordinated professional AAI sector or ‘industry’ as it is referred in the USA, AAI is not a harmonized adjunct health service. Availability is linked to the locations of professional health and allied practitioners with AAI training and interested individuals who sustain the voluntarism needed to provide AAIs that a typically funded in ad hoc and limited capacities. Compared to related fields, like veterinarian medicine and zoology, there remains in general more to be known about the ways AAI relates to larger service contexts and the types of interactions (if any) with other health and mental health service providers. This article explores AAI locales within the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to highlight the occupational experiences of practitioners and their animal-companions/co-workers (from the perspective of practitioners). Through interviews and animal-informed critical theory, this study finds AAI locales boast opportunities despite challenges to access and delivery. We elucidate AAI’s potential of becoming a guide for collective interspecies (companionable-) relations. Some AAI locales are underutilized or mismanaged, others remote, all with untapped potential to contribute to their communities through more diverse (e.g. interspecies) interprofessional service environments and as part of local economies. Leveraged proactively with AAI practitioners as educators for universal relational well-being, AAI could potentially transform therapeutic practice, ideally fostering novel identities beyond the unsustainable humanized and bounded self.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129045317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The influence of animal ownership on mental health for people with severe mental illness: Findings from a UK population cohort study","authors":"E. Shoesmith, Ben Lorimer, E. Peckham, L. Walker, E. Ratschen","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0027","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Background and aims: There is increasing evidence to suggest companion animal ownership may positively impact mental health and wellbeing. However, there is limited research related to the role of companion animal ownership for mental health that focuses on people living with severe mental illness (SMI). We aimed to explore the connection among loneliness, mental health, wellbeing, animal ownership, and the perceived strength of the human-animal bond in this population.\u0000 Methods: We conducted a survey in an existing UK cohort of people living with SMI. The survey questionnaire included standardized measures to collect information related to mental health, loneliness, and the perceived strength of the human-animal bond.\u0000 Results: Of 286 participants who had previously consented to participate in the follow-up survey, 170 participants (59.4%) completed the survey. Of these, 81 (47.6%) owned at least one animal, and most perceived to have a strong human-animal bond with their companion animal as indicated by the Comfort from Companion Animals Scale (M = 39.80 of a maximum score of 44). However, regression analyses showed that owning an animal was not significantly associated with wellbeing, depression, anxiety, or loneliness scores. Likewise, the perceived strength of the human-animal bond was not significantly associated with animal species owned or wellbeing, depression, and anxiety scores.\u0000 Conclusion: The findings provide a counterpoint to the commonly held assumption that companion animals are beneficial for all owners’ mental health. Further exploration of the role of human-animal relationships, including challenges and support needs related to animal ownership, in people living with SMI is required.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"94 10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127981951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Older adults and companion animal death: A survey of bereavement and disenfranchised grief","authors":"Cary A. Brown, Donna M. Wilson, E. Carr, D. Gross, M. Miciak, Jean E. Wallace","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Background: The number of older adults living with companion animals (pets) is increasing worldwide. While evidence revealing positive relationships between companion animals and healthy aging is well established, there is a dearth of research regarding companion animal death and subsequent human grieving. Some emerging research suggests that grief over companion animal death is often discounted or even unrecognized (disenfranchised) by others. The extent and consequences of disenfranchised grief (DG) are poorly understood. This study deepens our understanding of older adults’ experiences of DG in relation to companion animal death.\u0000 Methods: Participants from Alberta, Canada, were recruited through social media platforms to participate in an online questionnaire that collected demographic information and standardized measures of companion animal attachment, bereavement, and DG.\u0000 Results: The majority of the 98 participants were between 60 and 70 years of age, female, and living alone. Following their companion animal’s death, 38.1% identified a decrease in physical activity, and 47% reported that their emotional health had declined. One-third identified that they needed to be careful about who they disclosed their grief, as they were not certain that they would be supported. This group had a significantly greater likelihood of perceived decrease in physical health, and they were more likely to score higher on the Pet Bereavement Questionnaire.\u0000 Conclusions: This study adds weight to the emergent body of evidence highlighting companion animal bereavement as a legitimate and impactful health and well-being issue. The study found that DG is experienced by a sizable group of older adults following their companion animal’s death and that many participants perceived that socially legitimized recognition of loss and accompanying bereavement resources were lacking. These shortfalls contribute to health risks that negatively affect older adults’ ability to successfully age in the community.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116679958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Highlighting gaps in puppy research using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development","authors":"Ana Goncalves Costa, T. Nielsen, R. Christley, S. Hazel","doi":"10.1079/hai.2023.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2023.0014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The use of an ecological model in puppy development research can help to capture the real-world complexity of development factors and outcomes. Using a modified version of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, we explored the real-world experiences of 20 Australian adults who had acquired and were subsequently raising a puppy in their home for companionship purposes. Our participants’ experiences offered insights into several gaps in the current literature and potential opportunities for future research. These insights included: (1) researchers should be wary of viewing a puppy’s household as uniform, or static. Each individual within a household provides unique interactions and development opportunities and therefore cannot be a reliable representative of the household at large; (2) knowledge is unlikely to be uni-directional, or deriving from only a single source, even in environments such as puppy classes. How knowledge is transferred, trusted, interpreted, and applied is likely affected by the individual’s own ecological system (such as biases), as well as the characteristics of the relationship between the individuals involved; and (3) puppies both are affected by, and have an effect on, those around them. The arrival of a puppy into a household is likely to change the existing dynamics of that household. These changes may be positive or negative in nature, or both simultaneously. Further research into these findings may help researchers better understand the complex nature of puppy development.","PeriodicalId":146997,"journal":{"name":"Human-Animal Interactions","volume":"107 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133952683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}