Assessing Children's Relationships with Pet Dogs: A Multi-Method Approach.

Relationships with pet dogs are thought to provide substantial benefits for children, but the study of these relationships has been hindered by a lack of validated measures. Approaches to assessing the quality of children's pet dog relationships have tended to focus on positive relationship qualities and to rely on self-report questionnaires. The aim of this study was to develop and test multiple measures that could be used to assess both positive and negative features of children's relationships with pet dogs. In a sample of 115 children ages 9-14 years who were pet dog owners, we assessed six qualities of pet dog relationships: Affection, Nurturance of Pet, Emotional Support from Pet, Companionship, Friction with Pet, and Pets as Substitutes for People. All qualities were assessed with child questionnaires, parent questionnaires, and child daily reports of interactions with pets. We found substantial convergence in reports from different observers and across different measurement approaches. Principal components analyses and correlations suggested overlap for many of the positive qualities, which tended to be distinct from negative relationship qualities. The study provides new tools which could be used to test further how relationships with pets contribute to children's development.

Parent-Child Attachment Security and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Roles of Gratitude and Forgiveness.

Although greater parent-child attachment security is linked with children's lower levels of depressive symptoms, little research has evaluated potential explanatory mechanisms. We investigated whether dispositional gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness explain the relation between attachment security with parents and early adolescents' depressive symptoms. Early adolescents (N = 105; M age = 12.3 years; 51% girls) completed questionnaires assessing their attachment security to mother and father figures, depressive symptoms, and dispositional gratitude, and an interview assessing interpersonal forgiveness. Results revealed that greater attachment security to mothers and fathers was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and greater levels of dispositional gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness. Further, dispositional gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness were negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Dispositional gratitude emerged as a mediator between attachment security with each parent and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that greater parent-child security may promote early adolescents' appreciation of positive events, which in turn may relate to fewer depressive symptoms.

Attachment security is associated with the experience of specific positive emotions in middle childhood.

Adaptive emotion expression characterizes secure parent-child relationships in which children rely on attachment figures for secure base and safe haven support. We hypothesized that more securely attached children would report experiencing greater positive emotion. Children (N=92; M=11.91 years) completed the Friends and Family Interview which was coded for attachment security indicators (narrative coherence, mother and father safe haven support, mother and father secure base support). We analyzed Youth Values in Action Inventory strengths that reflected positive emotions (curiosity, zest, hope, love, gratitude). No attachment security indicators correlated with curiosity, all correlated with zest and gratitude, and four correlated with hope and love. Controlling for IQ, age, and temperament, attachment security significantly predicted positive emotion (12-19% variance); father secure base support uniquely predicted positive emotion. Our findings highlight the important role parental attachment plays in children's emotion experience and have implications for explaining why attachment might relate to children's other close relationships.