Nartova-Bochaver Sofya K, Reznichenko Sofia I, Larionow Paweł, Ariccio Silvia, Jankowski Jakub, Kamble Shanmukh V, Mosca Oriana, Oziemblewska Monika, Patil Appasaheb C, Scherba Ekaterina K, Sołtys Michalina, Johnson Timothy P
Department of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), Myasnitskaja Str., 20, 101000, Moscow, Russia.
Faculty of Psychology, Kazimierz Wielki University, Leopolda Staffa Str. 1, 85-867, Bydgoszcz, Poland.
BMC Psychol. 2025 Jul 9;13(1):754. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-03080-6.
Pet attachment is a phenomenon widely studied in various cultures, but little attention has been devoted to whether it varies across cultures. This topic requires a valid invariant instrument to measure pet attachment. Thus, the aim of this study was cross-cultural examination of the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS). A total of 906 respondents from India, Italy, Poland, and Russia took part in the study. The initial version of LAPS has 23 items and three factors: General attachment, People substitution, and Animal rights/welfare. We expected that (1) LAPS retains its structure across the four countries studied, and that (2) the level of pet attachment varies from country to country. The confirmatory factor analysis did not support the original three-factor structure in all the countries, with specific deviations from the initial structure in each participating country. After many iterations, we decided to investigate a new optimal structure of LAPS. The final one-factor model consisted of eleven items was supported, and this modification was labelled the Brief Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (B-LAPS). B-LAPS had high omega internal consistency (0.84-0.88), and has demonstrated configural, full metric, and partial scalar measurement invariance across countries. It was shown that the highest score in pet attachment was found in Poland, followed by India, Italy, and Russia. Future research is needed to further validate the external validity of B-LAPS and assess its usefulness in research, animal-assisted therapy, and education.
宠物依恋是一种在各种文化中都得到广泛研究的现象，但很少有人关注它是否因文化而异。这个话题需要一个有效的不变测量工具来衡量宠物依恋。因此，本研究的目的是对列克星敦宠物依恋量表（LAPS）进行跨文化检验。共有来自印度、意大利、波兰和俄罗斯的906名受访者参与了这项研究。LAPS的初始版本有23个项目和三个因子：一般依恋、人际替代以及动物权利/福利。我们预期：（1）LAPS在四个研究国家中保持其结构，并且（2）宠物依恋水平因国家而异。验证性因子分析并不支持所有国家的原始三因子结构，每个参与国家都有与初始结构的特定偏差。经过多次迭代，我们决定研究LAPS的一种新的最优结构。由11个项目组成的最终单因子模型得到了支持，这种修改后的量表被标记为列克星敦宠物依恋简表（B-LAPS）。B-LAPS具有较高的ω内部一致性（0.84 - 0.88），并且在各国之间表现出构型、完全度量和部分标量测量不变性。结果表明，宠物依恋得分最高的是波兰，其次是印度、意大利和俄罗斯。未来的研究需要进一步验证B-LAPS的外部效度，并评估其在研究、动物辅助治疗和教育中的实用性。
