CHILDHOOD CRUELTY TO ANIMALS - ASSESSING CRUELTY DIMENSIONS AND MOTIVATIONS

Preventing and treating childhood cruelty to animals will require a) q ualitative as well as quantitative, assessment methods and b) specific ation of the varied motivations for such behavior: Although some infor mation is available about the prevalence and frequency of animal maltr eatment in samples of children and adolescents, especially those diagn osed with Conduct Disorder; other dimensions of such maltreatment (e.g . severity, chronicity) are only beginning to be explored. We describe the research and development process leading to construction of a sem i-structured interview, the Children and Animals (Cruelty to Animals) Assessment Instrument (CAAI), for use with children over four years of age and their parents, to obtain information on animal maltreatment. The CAAI was field-tested with a community and clinical sample of twen ty children and included children in day treatment and residential pro grams for emotionally disturbed youth, incarcerated adolescents, and c hildren accompanying their mothers to shelters for battered women. The dimensions of cruelty to animals scorable using the CAAI include: SEV ERITY(degree of intentional pain/injury caused), FREQUENCY (number of separate acts), DURATION (period of time over which cruelty occurred), REGENCY (most current acts), DIVERSITY ACROSS AND WITHIN CATEGORIES ( number of types and number of animals within a type that were abused), ANIMAL SENTIENCE LEVEL, COVERT (related to child's attempts to concea l cruelty), ISOLATE (individual versus group cruelty), and EMPATHY (in dications of remorse or concern for the injured animal). A method is d escribed for converting these ratings to numerical scores in which hig her scores indicate more severe, problematic cruelty. Varied motivatio ns for children's cruelty to animals are discussed including curiosity and peer reinforcement, modification of mood state, imitation of adul t cruelty, and using animals as an ''implement'' of self-injury. The n eed for the CAAI is especially critical for assessment since we often found discrepancies between parent reports on one-item cruelty-to-anim als assessments (e.g., Child Behavior Checklist) and CAAI results.