Mackay Eilidh L M, Zulch Helen, Mills Daniel S
Department of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincs LN6 7DL, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 26;13(5):859. doi: 10.3390/ani13050859.
The concept of psychological resilience is well-explored in the human literature and is often described as the ability to 'bounce back' following adversity. However, it remains a neglected research area in dogs despite observations that like humans, dogs vary in their ability to cope with stress. This study aimed to develop the first canine 'resilience' scale. An on-line survey was developed for owners. This covered demographics, medical/behavioural history of the dog, and 19 potential resilience items assessed using a 5-point Likert scale; 1084 complete responses were received during the survey period, with 329 respondents subsequently completing the questionnaire a second time, 6-8 weeks later. Intra-rater reliability was assessed, and only reliable items retained. A principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was then performed with components extracted on the basis of the inspection of scree plots and the Kaiser criterion. Items were retained if they loaded >0.4 onto one of the components but removed if they cross-loaded onto more than one component. This resulted in a 14-item, 2-component solution. One component appeared to describe "Adaptability/behavioural flexibility" and the other "Perseverance", which are described in the human literature on resilience. Predictive validity was established for expected correlates, such as problem behaviour. The resulting instrument was called the Lincoln Canine Adaptability and Resilience Scale (L-CARS) and is the first to be developed for the assessment of resilience in dogs.
心理韧性的概念在人类文献中已有充分探讨，通常被描述为在逆境后“恢复过来”的能力。然而，尽管观察发现狗和人类一样，应对压力的能力存在差异，但狗的心理韧性仍是一个被忽视的研究领域。本研究旨在开发首个犬类“韧性”量表。为狗主人设计了一项在线调查。调查涵盖了人口统计学信息、狗的医疗/行为史，以及19个潜在的韧性项目，采用5点李克特量表进行评估；在调查期间共收到1084份完整回复，随后有329名受访者在6至8周后再次填写了问卷。评估了评分者内信度，仅保留可靠项目。然后进行了主成分分析（PCA）并采用方差最大化旋转，根据碎石图检验和凯泽准则提取成分。如果项目在其中一个成分上的载荷>0.4，则予以保留；如果在多个成分上有交叉载荷，则予以删除。最终得到了一个包含14个项目、两个成分的量表。一个成分似乎描述的是“适应性/行为灵活性”，另一个是“毅力”，这在人类心理韧性文献中有所描述。针对预期的相关因素，如问题行为，建立了预测效度。最终形成的工具被称为林肯犬类适应性与韧性量表（L-CARS），它是首个为评估狗的韧性而开发的量表。
