School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 May 22;19(5):e0301661. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301661. eCollection 2024.
Foster care programs at animal shelters have emerged as an important tool for promoting animal welfare and supporting shelter life-saving efforts. Preliminary evidence suggests that foster caregiving may also be health-promoting for humans. The goals of this study were to investigate the experiences of foster caregivers at animal shelters based on measures of positive and negative affect, quality of life, and grief, and to describe human-animal attachment among foster populations. Between March 2022 and 2023, 131 foster caregivers from five shelters in the United States completed three online surveys before, during and after providing foster care to a shelter animal. Positive affect decreased significantly from baseline to post-foster (F = 5.71, p<0.01), particularly among dog caregivers (F = 6.17, p<0.01). Negative affect remained unchanged (F = 0.47, p = 0.63). Foster caregivers perceived their foster animal provided companionship, affection and emotional support, although dog foster caregivers reported significantly higher emotional (U = 313.50, p<0.01) and social/physical quality of life (t = 4.42, p<0.01) than cat foster caregivers. Caregivers reported low mean avoidant and anxious attachment, suggesting they were able to develop secure bonds with their foster animals. Retention of fosters was also strong, with 86% of caregivers reporting they were likely to provide foster care in the future. Our findings suggest that fostering at animal shelters may serve as a One Health intervention to offer companionship, affection and emotional support to human caregivers while promoting animal welfare. However, these benefits did not translate to improvements in caregiver mental wellbeing, so caution should be applied when considering foster caregiving as a potential mental health promotion tool.
动物收容所的寄养计划已成为促进动物福利和支持收容所拯救生命努力的重要工具。初步证据表明，寄养护理也可能对人类健康有益。本研究的目的是基于积极和消极情绪、生活质量和悲伤来调查动物收容所寄养护理人员的经验，并描述寄养人群中的人类-动物依恋关系。2022 年 3 月至 2023 年期间，美国五家收容所的 131 名寄养护理人员在为收容所动物提供寄养护理之前、期间和之后完成了三次在线调查。积极情绪从基线到寄养后显著下降（F = 5.71，p<0.01），尤其是在狗护理人员中（F = 6.17，p<0.01）。消极情绪保持不变（F = 0.47，p = 0.63）。寄养护理人员认为他们的寄养动物提供了陪伴、感情和情感支持，尽管狗寄养护理人员报告的情感（U = 313.50，p<0.01）和社会/身体生活质量（t = 4.42，p<0.01）明显高于猫寄养护理人员。护理人员报告的回避和焦虑依恋的平均水平较低，这表明他们能够与他们的寄养动物建立安全的联系。寄养动物的保留率也很强，86%的护理人员表示他们将来很可能提供寄养护理。我们的研究结果表明，动物收容所的寄养可能是一种“同一健康”干预措施，可以为人类护理人员提供陪伴、感情和情感支持，同时促进动物福利。然而，这些好处并没有转化为护理人员心理健康的改善，因此在考虑寄养护理作为一种潜在的心理健康促进工具时应谨慎。
