Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
25566Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Dec;37(23-24):NP22627-NP22646. doi: 10.1177/08862605211072176. Epub 2022 Feb 12.
It is increasingly acknowledged that companion animal abuse often occurs in the same contexts as other types of abuse, particularly domestic abuse. However, the co-occurrence and strengths of these associations in the general population have not been well established in research. With data from a large representative sample of Norwegian adolescents, we aimed to determine 1) the extent to which Norwegian children are exposed to companion animal abuse in the family, 2) whether and how companion animal abuse is linked to other forms of domestic abuse that children experience, and 3) background factors associated with companion animal abuse. A total of 9240 adolescents aged 12-16 years ( 14.7) participated in the digital school-based survey. Four percent ( = 380) reported that they had ever witnessed a parent being violent towards a family companion animal, whereas 1% ( = 125) had experienced that an adult in the household had threatened to harm a companion animal. There was a substantial overlap between companion animal abuse and child abuse, and it most frequently co-occurred with psychological abuse and less severe forms of physical child abuse. This resonates with conceptualizations of domestic abuse as an ongoing pattern of psychological abuse and coercive control. The risk factors identified for companion animal abuse in this representative sample of adolescents were similar to known risk factors for domestic abuse. Low socioeconomic status and parents' substance abuse, parents' psychiatric illness, and parents' history of incarceration entailed a greater risk of experiencing companion animal abuse. We conclude that companion animal abuse co-occurs with other forms of domestic abuse and that it may be considered a part of the repertoire of domestic abuse that impacts children.
越来越多的人认识到，伴侣动物虐待行为通常与其他类型的虐待行为同时发生，尤其是家庭暴力。然而，在一般人群中，这些关联的同时发生和强度在研究中尚未得到很好的确定。利用来自挪威青少年大代表性样本的数据，我们旨在确定：1）挪威儿童在家庭中遭受伴侣动物虐待的程度；2）伴侣动物虐待与儿童经历的其他形式的家庭暴力之间的关系；3）与伴侣动物虐待相关的背景因素。共有 9240 名 12-16 岁的青少年（14.7%）参与了基于学校的在线调查。4%（=380 人）报告说他们曾目睹父母对家庭伴侣动物施暴，而 1%（=125 人）曾经历过家中的成年人威胁要伤害伴侣动物。伴侣动物虐待与儿童虐待之间存在很大的重叠，而且它最常与心理虐待和不太严重的身体虐待形式同时发生。这与将家庭暴力概念化为持续的心理虐待和强制控制模式相呼应。在这个具有代表性的青少年样本中，确定的伴侣动物虐待风险因素与已知的家庭暴力风险因素相似。社会经济地位低、父母滥用药物、父母的精神疾病和父母有入狱史，都会增加遭受伴侣动物虐待的风险。我们的结论是，伴侣动物虐待与其他形式的家庭暴力同时发生，并且可能被视为影响儿童的家庭暴力行为的一部分。
