Confirmatory factor analyses of the children’s attitudes and behaviors towards animals scale in two eastern cultural contexts

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the factor stability of the Children's Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Animals Scale (CABTA) across two eastern contexts: China and Malaysia. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted on data collected from 700 Chinese mothers and 700 Chinese fathers, and 385 Malay parents of children aged 6-12 years. The CFA results suggested that the model was a good fit for both the Chinese and Malaysian responses. Furthermore, invariance testing showed that although there was factor loading invariance across cultures, the assumption of intercept invariance did not hold. This suggests that although the scale is suitable for use in both cultures, mean comparisons across contexts could be problematic. The internal reliabilities for the Typical and Malicious cruelty subscales were adequate across the samples. All findings show that the CABTA is a promising scale for international use. Keywords Cruelty to animals • Confirmatory factor analyses • Malaysia • China Childhood cruelty to animals has been of particular interest to psychology due to its reported association with interpersonal violence in later life. The research examining this association highlights the need to identify children who are at risk of engaging in animal cruelty. For example, Luk et al. (1999) and Ascione et al. (1997) suggested that the development of assessment protocols related to childhood cruelty to animals would assist in both the definition and understanding of quantitative and qualitative variations in childhood animal cruelty, and would facilitate earlier detection of such problems in the clinical environment. In one attempt to achieve this end, Boat (1999) developed the Boat Inventory on Animal-related Experiences (BIARE) as a screening tool and information-gathering instrument. Amongst the wide-range of animal-related experiences explored by the BIARE are ownership of animals, the use of animals as support in times of stress, loss of animals, cruelty to,

Childhood cruelty to animals in China: the relationship with psychological adjustment and family functioning

“…Wong et al . () validated the scale for use in a Chinese parent sample where the original two factor structure was supported. The CABTA has been used in Western and non‐Western contexts including Australia, Malaysia and Japan (Mellor et al .…”

Development and validity evidence of the Children-Dog Interaction Scale

“…Os autores defendem o uso dessa medida como instrumento de triagem para avaliar e detectar precocemente comportamentos agressivos de crianças em relação aos animais, em amostras clínicas e na comunidade. A escala CABTA foi ainda validada na Malásia e China (Wong, Mellor, Xu, & Richardson, 2013).…”