The Supportive Role of Pets in the Childhood of Sexual Abuse Survivors. S.B. Barker. Ph.D., R.T. Barker, Ph.D., K.S. Dawson, M.S., and J.S. Knisely, Ph.D. Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA. (Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Human-Animal Interactions, Animals, Health and Quality of Life, September 6-9, 1995, Geneva, Switzerland).
Although research documents a child’s need for social and emotional support and suggests that pets may help meet that need, little has been done to investigate the supportive role of pets for high risk children. This study used the Family Life Space Diagram (FLSD), previously validated in human-animal bond research, to examine the supportive-abusive roles of pets and humans identified as having a major childhood impact on the survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
Subjects were 40 sexual abuse survivors engaged in therapy at 5 outpatient sites. Subjects included 12 males and 28 females, ages 20 to 50, 12 of whom were black, 27 white, and 1 of other racial background. Subjects completed FLSDs using symbols to represent the persons and pets in their childhood having a major impact (positive and negative). They also rated on a 7-point scale the abusive/supportiveness of each person and pet drawn. Distances from the survivor to the persons and pets drawn were then measured and compared.
Results of repeated measures analysis of variance show 1) distances on the FLSD reflect the level of abusiveness supportiveness (p=.OOO1) of relationships, with persons and pets placed closer to the survivor being more supportive, and 2) pets are placed closer to the survivor (p=.001) and are ranked more supportive (p=.0001) than humans.
Visual analysis of diagrams reveals several patterns: 1) either abusers are placed so that they separate the survivor and pet from other human supports or pet and human supports are grouped together shielding the survivor from the abusers, and 2) most survivors place themselves toward the edge of the diagram although the center is hypothesized to be the healthy position for one’s self. These results suggest a strong supportive role of pets in the isolated, confusing world of the sexually abused child. Continued research on the role of the pet is needed with this and other high risk groups. Also, these results provide further evidence of the construct validity of the FLSD in human-animal bond research.
