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A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment

Childhood animal cruelty (CAC) is a risk for later interpersonal violence and a red flag for other forms of violence in the household, yet very few studies have spoken to children directly about their cruelty to animals. Animal Guardians (AG) is a humane education program run by the Scottish SPCA fo...

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Autores principales: Wauthier, Laura, Williams, Joanne M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9092908/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32597294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260520928640
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author Wauthier, Laura
Williams, Joanne M.
author_facet Wauthier, Laura
Williams, Joanne M.
author_sort Wauthier, Laura
collection PubMed
description Childhood animal cruelty (CAC) is a risk for later interpersonal violence and a red flag for other forms of violence in the household, yet very few studies have spoken to children directly about their cruelty to animals. Animal Guardians (AG) is a humane education program run by the Scottish SPCA for children of age 5 to 12 years who have been cruel to animals or deemed at-risk. This research investigated how children referred to AG spoke about their experiences of animal cruelty and factors surrounding it. Research consent was obtained for 10 children (average age = 8.8 years, n = 9 males), referred concerning cruel/at-risk behavior toward their pets. The interview schedule combined techniques such as crafts, vignettes, open questions, and standardized measures. Interviews were qualitatively analyzed using content analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Content analysis suggested that referred children (a) tended to have small attachment networks which often included pets, (b) tended to interpret ambiguous situations predominately negatively, (c) tended to like animals and see them as sentient, and (d) struggled admitting to cruelty. Three main superordinate themes emerged from the IPA: (a) Bonding to animals, (b) Exposure to/normalization of violence, and (c) Signs of emotional issues/trauma. Children who were referred for animal cruelty toward their pets were from vulnerable backgrounds, often had complex backdrops to their at-risk or cruel behavior, and sometimes had trouble regulating their emotions and behaviors. Programs hoping to address CAC should be aware of these complex emotional, psychological, and behavioral factors, tailoring interventions accordingly.
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spelling pubmed-90929082022-05-12 A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment Wauthier, Laura Williams, Joanne M. J Interpers Violence Original Research Childhood animal cruelty (CAC) is a risk for later interpersonal violence and a red flag for other forms of violence in the household, yet very few studies have spoken to children directly about their cruelty to animals. Animal Guardians (AG) is a humane education program run by the Scottish SPCA for children of age 5 to 12 years who have been cruel to animals or deemed at-risk. This research investigated how children referred to AG spoke about their experiences of animal cruelty and factors surrounding it. Research consent was obtained for 10 children (average age = 8.8 years, n = 9 males), referred concerning cruel/at-risk behavior toward their pets. The interview schedule combined techniques such as crafts, vignettes, open questions, and standardized measures. Interviews were qualitatively analyzed using content analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Content analysis suggested that referred children (a) tended to have small attachment networks which often included pets, (b) tended to interpret ambiguous situations predominately negatively, (c) tended to like animals and see them as sentient, and (d) struggled admitting to cruelty. Three main superordinate themes emerged from the IPA: (a) Bonding to animals, (b) Exposure to/normalization of violence, and (c) Signs of emotional issues/trauma. Children who were referred for animal cruelty toward their pets were from vulnerable backgrounds, often had complex backdrops to their at-risk or cruel behavior, and sometimes had trouble regulating their emotions and behaviors. Programs hoping to address CAC should be aware of these complex emotional, psychological, and behavioral factors, tailoring interventions accordingly. SAGE Publications 2020-06-29 2022-05 /pmc/articles/PMC9092908/ /pubmed/32597294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260520928640 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research
Wauthier, Laura
Williams, Joanne M.
A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment
title A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment
title_full A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment
title_fullStr A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment
title_full_unstemmed A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment
title_short A Qualitative Study of Children’s Accounts of Cruelty to Animals: Uncovering the Roles of Trauma, Exposure to Violence, and Attachment
title_sort qualitative study of children’s accounts of cruelty to animals: uncovering the roles of trauma, exposure to violence, and attachment
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9092908/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32597294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260520928640
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