The short attachment to pets scale (SAPS) for children and young people: development, psychometric qualities and demographic and health associations

Marsa sambola, Ferran, Muldoon, J, Williams, J, Lawrence, A, connor, M and Currie, C (2016) The short attachment to pets scale (SAPS) for children and young people: development, psychometric qualities and demographic and health associations. Child Indicators Research, 9 (1). pp. 111-131. ISSN 1874-897X

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Abstract

This study describes the development of the SAPS and investigates its reliability and validity within the context of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Survey (HBSC) which gathered data on representative samples of school pupils aged 11, 13 and 15 in Scotland and England. In the development of SAPS, following a comprehensive review of the literature, two small-scale empirical studies were carried out (one qualitative and one quantitative). Regarding the validation process, the reliability and validity of the SAPS was assessed in a sub-sample (n = 7159) of pupils who completed the HBSC survey and were identified as owning pets. Factor analysis resulted in a one-factor solution (explaining 67.78 % of the variance); Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.894. The item-total correlation ranged from 0.368 to 0.784. A linear model showed that attachment to pets was associated with age (being 11 or 13 years old), being a girl, white ethnicity, and considering a pet as one’s own. SAPS scores were also positively associated with quality of life. The total variance in SAPS explained by these variables was 15.7 %. Effect sizes of associations were medium (age, considering a pet as one’s own) and small (ethnicity, age, gender, quality of life). The study concludes that SAPS is a coherent and psychometrically sound measure. It is associated with a range of demographic variables and quality of life, which confirms its utility as a new succinct measure of children’s and young people’s attachment to pets for use in health and social science research.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Attachment, Pets, Young people, Children, Health, HBSC
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Business & Applied Social Science > Department of Applied Social Sciences
Depositing User: David Upson-Dale
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2017 14:24
Last Modified: 08 Mar 2023 12:41
URI: https://oars.uos.ac.uk/id/eprint/382

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