WANTED: More Participants! Self-Disclosure with Dogs: Getting the Public to Talk About What They Talk About By Aislinn Evans-Wilday Supervised by Daniel Mills & Todd Hogue INTRODUCTION Having a confidante to confide in has reported health benefits from both a psychological and physical perspective (Farber, 2006), but who says this confidante has to be human? This research is investigating the health benefits of canine confidantes. BACKGROUND This research started out as an undergraduate dissertation project, asking the question: “Do dog owners confide differently in their partner vs their dog?” This stemmed from the abundance of literature (albeit largely anecdotal) on the health benefits of dog ownership, combined with research on the benefits of intimate relationships – of which a key component is self-disclosure (Prager, 1995). Since no scale existed to measure self-disclosure to one’s pet, the Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale (ESDS, Snell et al, 1988) was adapted for use with dogs and released as an online survey. Online Survey DISCUSSING THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS SOCIAL MEDIA MAGAZINES KENNELS, GROOMERS, DOG WALKERS “Self-Disclosure with Dogs” Adapted from ESDS 40 items, 8 subscales 5 point Likert scale Kolmogorov-Smirnov Cronbach’s Alpha Kruskal-Wallis Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Factor Analysis Discriminant Function Analysis Self-Disclosure with Dogs Quality of Life Scale (QoLS) Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) Qualitative data Reasons why/ why not to confide in a dog Topics / context Perceived benefits POSTERS IN SHOP WINDOWS HIGH STREET RECRUITMENT PRESS RELEASE UNIVERSITIES THIS POSTER! Totally willing to confide Not at all willing to confide Totally willing to confide The number of female participants vastly outnumbered the male participants to a point that only data from the heterosexual females could be used. The current research set out to first establish a male dataset for comparison before assessing whether there is a link between quality of life and perceived health (as measured by the Quality of Life Scale, (QoLS, Burckhardt & Anderson, 2003)) and self- disclosure pattern (topics talked about and to whom). Given that a large proportion of the literature reports a link between attachment to one’s pet and the level of benefits they receive, a measure of attachment, the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS, Johnson et al, 1992), will also be included to determine whether there is a correlation between attachment and quality of life. METHODS: Getting The Public To Talk Raising awareness of the research and encouraging members of the public to take part proved more difficult than anticipated. Initially, social media was used to spread the word, but soon new ways to boost responses were needed. SEE THE ORIGINAL RESEARCH HERE! REFERENCES: Burckhardt, C. S., & Anderson, K. L. (2003). The Quality of Life Scale (QOLS): Reliability, Validity, and Utilization. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 1, 60. doi: / Farber, B. A., (2006) Self-disclosure in Psychotherapy. New York. Guilford Press. Johnson, T. P., Garrity, T. F., & Stallones, L. (1992) Psychometric Evaluation of the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) Anthrozoös vol. 5 (3) pp Prager, K., (1995) The Psychology of Intimacy. New York. Guilford Press. Snell, W. E., Miller, R. S., & Belk, S. S., (1988) Development of the Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale. Sex Roles vol. 18 pp Significant Results from Heterosexual Female Dataset: Prefer to confide in partners about feelings of Fear (p < 0.001) and Anger (p < 0.001). Prefer to confide in their dogs about feelings of Apathy (p < 0.001), Calmness (p = 0.001), Jealousy (p < 0.001) and Depression (p < 0.001). Significant Results from Male Dataset: No significant differences in preference of confidante, although Happiness is approaching significance, in favour of partner. Topics participants were most willing to talk about are Calmness and Happiness. So far, we know that there is a substantial difference between male and female self- disclosure patterns. Using Discriminant Function Analysis, we can correctly predict a participants gender based on which topics they prefer to confide in their partner and which topics they prefer to confide in their dog, 58% of the time. The next phase in this project is to roll out the Self-Disclosure with Dogs survey again, this time with the QoLS and the LAPS. Using the data from these three surveys we will be able to determine whether there is a correlation between people’s self-disclosure pattern, their attachment to their pet and their self-perceived quality of life and health. This research has implications in the future of Animal Assisted Therapy/Intervention as it will help uncover which individuals benefit most from animal companionship. If attachment is the deciding factor on the range of benefits one receives from an animal then it may be that visiting therapy dogs are less effective than resident therapy dogs and guide dog ownership. Differences in confidante preference (as determined by the Self-Disclosure with Dogs survey) may also have an impact on the extent to which a therapy dog can provide social support to an individual. If you are willing to take part please leave your address! StatisticsSystematic Literature ReviewOnline SurveysInterviews “What do we know about the health benefits of interacting with animals?”