Grau de apego dos proprietários com os animais de companhia segundo a Escala Lexington Attachment to Pets

Abstract

Te evaluation of the degree of attachment of owners to pets is an important resource to study the influence of the pets to diferent physical and psychosocial factors to humans. Te current study applied the LAPS (Lexington Attachment to Pets Scales) test to evaluate attachment degree of owners to their pets. Te test was performed in 95 subjects, males and females from diferent age groups, in Minas Gerais and São Paulo state. Most of the questions were correlated to the total score (p < 0.0001). Women and elderly subjects had lower scores, demonstrating a greater degree of attachment when compared to males and younger individuals, respectively. In conclusion, the age and gender differ to the degree of attachment. Te use of negative questions in a test composed mostly by positive issues may inhibit the interviewer responses.