Man’s Attitude Towards Nature and Animal Respect Questionnaire (AniRe-Que)

Abstract

The psychometric properties of the author´s original tool named Questionnaire of the Relations between a Man and Animals (further on AniRe-Que) was constructed to assess the relations between a man and animals as natural beings; calculated in the form of an R-score (R as respect). The questionnaire is based on the theoretical outcomes of an egalitarian zoocentric, ecoethical position attributing moral statues to all beings, and measures the level of respect expression to nonhuman beings. The aim of this study was to verify its validity and reliability in a research sample of future primary and secondary teachers (N = 500, 62% of females, Mage=22.3; SD=4.1) at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. Various statistical procedures were used to verify its construct validity (exploratory factor analysis /EFA/) and its convergent/discriminating character, criterion validity, and reliability (test-retest, parallel-forms, internal consistency) to establish satisfactory psychometric properties for the AniRe-Que questionnaire. The questionnaire has possible usage for the animal relation estimation by researchers, practitioners and teachers´ ethical and environmental education intervention effectivitiveness, and also as a form of future international cooperation and verification based on this new instrument.

Man´s Attitude Towards Animals Within the Context of Gender, Age, Place of Living, Eating Habits, and Worldview in Slovakia

“…Furthermore, the R-score enters into a highly significant negative moderately strong relationship with an apathic attitude towards nature and a low negative relationship with an anthropocentric attitude towards nature confirming the discriminant validity of the AniRe-Que(15) construct validity. These were expected values and comparable to our previous research from 2019-2020 (Kaliský and Kaliská 2020). The same tendency was supported also by the analysis done for the genders.…”

“…We used two self-report measures: AniRe( 15) is an instrument of own provenience whose creation process, validity and reliability assessment was described and explained in Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae last year (Kaliský and Kaliská 2020). It consists of 15 items assessing the animal respect level labeled as R-score (R as respect) reaching values from 1 to 5, and 5 represents the highest level of animal respect.…”

“…As we have done in our previous study (Kaliský and Kaliská 2020), we were analyzing the criterion validity by the means of known groups (Maršálová and Mikšík 1990) which was a group of the animal rights defenders. Now we were trying to find out the same tendency, and prove again the criterion validity between those ones who do eat/like to eat meat (N=607; 51% of females) and those ones who do not eat meat or/are vegetarians for various reasons (N=85; 68% of females).…”

“…There are no sociological or diagnostic tools to assess this respect towards animals in the Czecho-Slovak scientific research setting. Based on these theoretical starting points of egalitarian zoocentrism, we created and presented our diagnostic tool Animal Respect Questionnaire, abbreviated AniRe-Que (15) (Kaliský and Kaliská 2020) with proved construct and criterion validity and inner reliability. In this study, in addition to its theoretical background, we present findings in the context of gender, age, residence, eating habits, and worldview on a sample of 937 respondents.…”

Towards the Conflict and Compatibility of the Contemporary Economy with Nature

“…J. Kaliský and L. Kaliská require respect for the lives of others. It begins with wonder at life because it is a source of meaning and value (for more details see Kaliský and Kaliská 2020). The problem of naturality, in relation to respect for life, is addressed by B. Baďurová (for more details see, e.g., Baďurová 2022).…”