•  
  •  
 

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop a caretaker-completed questionnaire entitled “Cats’ Behavioral Suitability for Animal-Assisted Interventions” (CatSAAI), covering two categories of items associated with seven feline personality factors. These feline personality factors were previously identified and validated by Mikkola et al. (2021) on a large sample of domestic cat guardians. The aim of the CatSAAI questionnaire is to facilitate the interpretation of the behavioral suitability or unsuitability of each individual cat for inclusion in feline-assisted interventions, while considering the prevention of stress and risks in AAI settings for both people and animals. The tool was proposed by an international team of experts in animal behavior and AAI practitioners within the Erasmus+ Project “Animals for People,” which involves partners from Poland, Switzerland, Norway, and Romania. The process of the elaboration of the CatSAAI questionnaire included three steps: (1) grouping of the items identified by Mikkola et al. (2021) in two categories: suitability and unsuitability of cats for AAI; (2) analysis (psychometric and correlational analyses) of the responses of initially collected data from 51 private cat caretakers from six countries, and (3) elimination of several items based on statistical outcomes and expert validation and elaboration of the final form of the survey. The final version of the suitability category contains 28 items belonging to the feline personality factors: activity/playfulness (14 items), sociability toward humans (13 items), and sociability toward cats (1 item), while the unsuitability category consists of 16 items belonging to the following feline personality factors: aggression toward humans (10), fearfulness (3), excessive grooming (2), and activity/playfulness (1).

Download

Share

COinS