Italian Youths' Attitudes toward, and Concern for, Animals

Abstract

This is the first comprehensive study of Italian youths'(9-18 years of age) attitudes and behaviors toward animals. Various aspects of child-animal relationships were analyzed, including pet ownership, pet attachment, pet loss, worries about pet, animal abuse (both perpetrated and witnessed), fears of animals, animals as a source of comfort, feelings toward road kill, and attitudes toward hunting, the use of furs and leather clothes, zoos, and the use of animals in circuses. Pupils from 12 schools anonymously completed a sixpage self-administered questionnaire. From the total number of questionnaires received (about 2,200), 800 (403 F and 397 M) were randomly selected, which represented each school and all ages, and analyzed. Through this instrument numerous quantitative and qualitative data were obtained, some of which were also examined in the light of other significant aspects of Italian culture. One basic assumption underpinning this research is that attitudes and behaviors toward animals should always be investigated within a theoretical framework that also takes cultural context into consideration. On the whole, our results indicate that animals play an important role in Italian youths' lives, a role which many adults tend to underestimate. Though our approach is preeminently descriptive, our findings can provide hypotheses that can be tested in future research.Despite there being evidence of pet-keeping since Roman antiquity (Bodson 2000), little is known about Italian children's or adults' attitudes to pet animals, the roles of pets in the Italian family, and how pets affect psychological well-being. Recently in Italian society, attention to people's relationships with animals and with nature at large has increased (Pagani in press). Traditionally, Italian culture has not generally been characterized by a deep interest in nature, compared, for example, with English-speaking countries. Indeed, it was especially in these countries that psychological and sociological research on human-animal interactions, in-❖ cluding cruelty toward animals, first developed. Since people's attitudes and behaviors are strongly influenced by cultural factors (e. g., Kardiner

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Student Attitudes toward Snakes

“…Th e dislike of snakes seems to be a cross-cultural universal, since they rank lowest on the preference scale in reports from other countries (Africa: Kaltenborn et al, 2006;USA: Kellert & Westerveld, 1983; the Netherlands: Arrindell, 2000; Italy: Pagani, Robustelli, & Ascione, 2007;Spain: Martín-López, Montes, & Benayas, 2007). Th e present study failed to reveal signifi cant differences in the Negativistic dimension between Turkish and Slovakian students, supporting the universality of fear of snakes.…”

“…Th e attitudes in Bjerke, Østdahl, and Kleiven's (2003) research were examined just in terms of participants' sympathies, leaving other dimensions of their attitudes (see, for example, Kellert, 1985) unexplored. Pagani, Robustelli, and Ascione (2007) found only a weak association between pet guardianship and empathic attitudes toward animals. Although these authors found that snakes were common objects of irrational fears on the part of Italian pupils, they did not examine the attitudes of pet caretakers toward snakes or less popular animals in general.…”

“…Snakes do not get much legal protection because of public prejudices such as hate, fear, or incorrect assumptions about their danger, as well as ignorance of the fact that many snakes are of good use (e.g., in controlling rodents in ecosystems) (Kaltenborn, Bjerke, Nyahongo, & Williams, 2006). Snakes are in one of the most frequently cited fear categories (Pagani, Robustelli, & Ascione, 2007;Robins & Regier, 1991). Th is high prevalence of snake fear in humans, as well as in our primate relatives, suggests that it is a result of an ancient evolutionary history (Öhman & Mineka, 2003).…”

A First Look at Harm Toward Animals by Bahamians in Childhood

“…In addition to the avenues for future research noted above, further research needs to examine acceptable and unacceptable animal abuse in Bahamian society (this type of study could be based on Pagani, Robustelli, and Ascione, 2007) as well as how animals are portrayed and discussed in schools and homes.…”

Young Slovenian learners’ knowledge about animal diversity on different continents

“…The most well-known group was mammals. The reasons could be students' greater affection for mammals (Torkar, Kubiatko, & Bajd, 2012;Prokop & Tunnicliffe, 2010), more frequent contact with them (Pagani, Robustelli, & Ascione, 2007), mammals' charismatic nature (Torkar, Praprotnik, & Bajd, 2007;Barney et al 2005), or some other factor.…”