A CRITICAL-REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON THE HUMAN COMPANION ANIMAL RELATIONSHIP - 1988 TO 1993

Fifty-two research reports from the human/companion animal relationshi p literature published from 1988 to 1993 were reviewed using a shorten ed form of the Selby Research, Assessment Form II (RAF) Descriptive da ta were analyzed for characteristics such as attributes of authors, gr ant funding, purposes, quality of literature reviews and conceptual fr ameworks, settings and sampling, research designs, and implications fo r future research. Qualitative data describing results of studies were summarized. Over half of the studies were published in Anthrozoos and were not grant funded. These were primarily nonexperimental studies u sing nonprobability, nongeneralizable samples. Social support was the most frequently cited framework. Understudied populations were rural g roups, the middle aged, adolescents, and institutionalized elders. Few errors were committed in describing instruments or reporting analyses of data.