Albuquerque Natalia, Corte Sylvia, Feld Alejandra, Otta Emma, Prist Ricardo, Johnson Timothy P
Departamento de Psicologia Experimental, Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brasil.
Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Biología, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Montevideo, Uruguay.
Psychol Rep. 2025 Jan 28:332941251315072. doi: 10.1177/00332941251315072.
Human biological and cultural evolution is tied to the relationships established with other animals. Attachment is one of the mechanisms established between dogs/cats and humans and allows the generation of affective bonds and close proximity. Many instruments have been used to study attachment of people to their dogs/cats, such as the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS). Our aim was adapting LAPS for South American populations (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Peru and Colombia), and its languages (Brazilian Portuguese and South American Spanish) and evaluating them with South American data. We translated and back translated the instrument, examined versions with a pilot sample and collected data from 2832 respondents (18-85 y.o.), who lived with at least one cat/dog. We report and compare findings from psychometric analyses of the two versions of LAPS using both classical test (coefficient alpha, confirmatory factor analysis) and item response theory (Rasch analysis) methodologies. Findings demonstrate the comparability of the versions while observing some minor differences in their dimensionality. As in the original LAPS, results suggest one main dimension (general attachment) that assesses the general relationship between a person and a companion animal. We suggest that using appropriate language (e.g., companions and guardians instead of pets and owners) will improve understanding. We emphasize the importance of adapting wording and content of research tools considering cultural aspects of the populations studied. We introduce LAPS SA (LAPS South America) as a unified instrument to measure attachment between people and companion animals. Implications for the use of LAPS SA and future research are discussed.
人类的生物和文化进化与人类和其他动物之间建立的关系紧密相连。依恋是狗/猫与人类之间建立的一种机制，它能够产生情感纽带并使人与动物保持亲密关系。许多工具被用于研究人们与他们的狗/猫之间的依恋关系，比如列克星敦宠物依恋量表（LAPS）。我们的目标是使LAPS适用于南美洲人群（巴西、阿根廷、智利、乌拉圭、秘鲁和哥伦比亚）及其语言（巴西葡萄牙语和南美西班牙语），并用南美洲的数据对其进行评估。我们对该工具进行了翻译和回译，通过一个试点样本检验各个版本，并收集了2832名（年龄在18 - 85岁之间）至少养有一只猫/狗的受访者的数据。我们使用经典测试（阿尔法系数、验证性因素分析）和项目反应理论（拉施分析）方法，报告并比较LAPS两个版本的心理测量分析结果。研究结果表明了两个版本的可比性，同时也观察到它们在维度上存在一些细微差异。与原始的LAPS一样，结果表明存在一个主要维度（一般依恋），用于评估人与伴侣动物之间的总体关系。我们建议使用恰当的语言（例如，用伴侣和守护者代替宠物和主人）会增进理解。我们强调在考虑所研究人群文化方面的情况下，调整研究工具的措辞和内容的重要性。我们引入LAPS SA（南美洲LAPS）作为一种统一的工具来测量人与伴侣动物之间的依恋关系。文中还讨论了使用LAPS SA的意义以及未来的研究方向。
