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Adult attitudes toward animals have received extensive research attention. By contrast, despite the importance of child-animal interactions for children’s development and animal welfare, children’s attitudes toward animals have not been fully explored. The aim of this study was to examine Spanish children’s attitudes toward animals. A twelve-item scale named the 'Brief Attitudes Towards Animals scale for Children (BATAC) was designed and completed by 416 Spanish primary school children aged between 6 and 13 years. Analyses revealed that the attitude scale had very good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.75; Revelle's omega = 0.75; Sijtsma's glb = 0.84) and three factors, referred to here as ‘compassion’, ‘friendship’ and ‘opinion on ownership’, explained 56.47% of the variance. The sub-scales were used in subsequent analyses alongside the total score. Demographic variables such as age, school year group, ownership of a companion animal, and children's beliefs about animal mind were shown to be associated with children's attitudes toward animals. Being older, being in a higher school year, having a dog or a small mammal at home, and scoring animals higher on sentience capabilities were associated with higher pro-animal attitudes. Other pet types (i.e. cats, birds, reptiles or fish) and children's gender were not associated with attitudes to animals. This study is the first to explore attitudes toward animals among Spanish primary school children, and it highlights attitudinal differences regarding animal species and child demographic variables.

Contact with animals has been increasingly recognized as being beneficial to mental health and wellbeing due to their therapeutic function, with “animal-assisted therapies” gaining in popularity. There is less research exploring how companion animals within the home impact upon mental health and wellbeing. This qualitative study explores people’s experiences of the role of their pets in reducing or exacerbating their mental health symptomology and general wellbeing. One hundred and nineteen adults, 41 with a diagnosed mental health condition, and 70 recently struggling with their mental health, completed an online survey with open and closed questions to explore their experiences of their pets and mental health. Through thematic analysis, seven key themes were identified. Six themes encompassed benefits of pets; increased hedonic tone; increased motivation and behavioral activation; reduced anxiety symptoms and panic attacks; increased social connections and reduced loneliness; reduced risk behaviors; and coping and aiding the recovery process. One theme encompassed negative impacts: increased negative feelings and emotional strain. Notably, pets reduced urges of self-harm, and prevented onsets of panic attacks and suicide attempts. Both direct mechanisms (e.g., lowering physiological anxiety through physical touch) and indirect mechanisms (e.g., elevating mood through humor, increased mindfulness and disrupting rumination) were identified. These findings encapsulate the complex roles that pets can play in people’s mental health and wellbeing, and highlights that even when the human–pet relationship is regarded positively, pets cannot “treat” mental health difficulties, and should not be viewed as such. Mental health practitioners should be aware and considerate of the importance of pets in people’s lives as well as individual differences in the potential capability of pets to both reduce or exacerbate mental health symptomology and overall wellbeing.

Beliefs concerning the mental experiences of non-human animals have been related to how people treat, see and take care of non-human animals. Whereas this issue has been the subject of several studies on adults, few have been conducted with children. Taking advantage of a recently published scale, the Child-BAM questionnaire, we aimed to explore the beliefs in animal minds of Spanish primary school children. The study also considered the effects of a child’s age, school year group, gender, and pet ownership on their beliefs in animal mind. The Child-BAM questionnaire, concerning the mental capabilities of eight different species (human, chimpanzee, dog, cow, otter, sparrow, frog and fish), was distributed at a primary school sited in Cordoba, Spain. A total of 416 participants were included aged between six and thirteen years. Each child provided scores for animals’ ability to have intelligence, experience pain, fear, happiness, and sadness, and total scores for the eight species. The results showed that children’s beliefs about animal minds differed depending on the type of animal, and that children were more likely to believe in emotional capacities of animals rather than their cognitive capabilities. Dogs achieved similar scores to humans regarding all capabilities, and higher than any other species, while the cow, fish and frog generally scored the lowest. Age, school year group, and having a companion animal at home affected beliefs in animal minds, whereas gender had no effect. This study highlights cultural similarities in children’s beliefs about animal minds and the potential importance of this variable for future research in child-animal interactions.

Many children growing up in urban areas of Western countries have limited contact with and knowledge of farm animals and food production systems. Education can play an important role in children&rsquo, s understanding of farm animal welfare issues, however, most education provided focuses on pets. There is a need to develop new farm animal welfare interventions for young children. This study examines the process of designing, developing, and evaluating the effectiveness of a new theoretically-driven digital game to teach children, aged 6&ndash, 13 years, about farm animal welfare. &lsquo, Farm Animal Welfare&rsquo, aimed to promote children&rsquo, s knowledge about animal welfare, promote beliefs about animal sentience, and promote positive attitudes and compassion. A quasi-experimental design was carried out, using self-report questionnaires that children (n = 133, test = 69, control = 64) completed in the classroom. Test and control groups were from different schools and the control group did not engage in the intervention. Findings indicate a positive impact on beliefs about animal minds, knowledge about animal welfare needs, and knowledge about welfare in different farming systems, but there was no change in compassion or attitudes about cruelty. This study presents the first evaluation of a digital animal welfare education intervention for children, demonstrating the benefits of incorporating &lsquo, serious games&rsquo, into farm animal welfare education. The findings will inform future practice around farm animal welfare education interventions for primary school children.

Children and animals can have a great impact on each other’s lives, yet little is known about the underpinnings of these relationships. Children’s interactions with animals may be influenced by their belief in animal minds, that animals are sentient and experience thoughts and feelings. This study introduces a newly developed measure of children’s beliefs about animal minds (Child-BAM) and investigates associations between Child-BAM and factors relating to positive and negative interactions with animals. Using a questionnaire-based survey of over one thousand 6 to 13 year-olds in the UK, the results show that Child-BAM was associated with higher attachment to pets (p=.000), compassion (p=.000), humane (p=.000) and caring behaviour (p=.000) towards animals, emotional attachment to animals (p=.003) and positive attitudes towards animals (p=.000). Child-BAM was also associated with less acceptance of intentional animal cruelty (p=.001), unintentional animal cruelty (p=.007), and animal neglect (p=.01). There was a significant difference in Child-BAM between children with pets (p=.014), children who had a pet of their own (p=.016), and age group (p=.000). This study enhances our understanding of the psychological underpinnings of child-animal relationships and highlights the implications for animal welfare education and for preventing childhood animal cruelty.

Background It is estimated that more than half of children living in households where intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs are also exposed to animal cruelty (AC). Although prior research links bonds with pets with higher levels of socioemotional competence among school-age children, exposure to AC may negate the protective effects of pet ownership and/or exacerbate the potentially deleterious effect of IPV on children’s mental health. Objective The current study evaluates whether and to what extent the associations between exposure to IPV and several indicators of children’s mental health vary as a function of children’s positive engagement with pets and exposure to AC. Participants and Setting Participants included 204 children (aged 7–12 years; 47% female; 57% Latinx) and their maternal caregiver who were recruited from domestic violence agencies in a western U.S. state. Method Multiple moderation analysis evaluated whether the association between children’s exposure to IPV and internalizing and posttraumatic stress symptoms vary as a function of children’s positive engagement with pets and exposure to AC. Results Analyses revealed several moderation effects for positive engagement with pets (e.g., internalizing problems: [b = −.15, t(195) = −2.66, p = .008]; posttraumatic stress symptoms: [b = −.13, t(195) = −2.24, p = .026]), whereas exposure to AC only moderated the association between IPV and anxious/depressed symptoms (b = .32, t(195) = −2.41, p = .017). Conclusions These findings highlight the potential protective effects of positive engagement with pets and importance of screening for exposure to AC when engaging in trauma-informed work with children exposed to IPV.