Animal abuse among preadolescents directly and indirectly victimized at school and at home

Abstract

Background: Animal abuse by preadolescents has been associated with their later family violence and/or criminal behaviour; less is known about animal abuse and concurrent experience of being a victim at home and/or school, or of contemporaneous aggression to peers.

Aims: To establish the prevalence of animal abuse among Italian preadolescents and its relationship with experience of abuse at home and school (direct and witnessed), and to peer abuse (bullying).

Method: An Italian community sample of 268 girls and 264 boys (aged 9-12) completed a self-reported questionnaire about victimization at home and school, animal abuse and bullying.

Results: Two in five preadolescents admitted abusing animals at least once in their life, and one in three bullying peers at school, with a higher prevalence among boys. Over three-quarters of all participants reported at least one type of victim experience: one-third had experienced inter-parental violence; over one-third had themselves been abused by one or both parents; two in five had been directly or indirectly victimized at school. Individual tests of association suggested gender differences. Multivariate regression analyses conducted separately for boys and girls showed that the independent variable accounted for more than 25% of the variance for the girls, but less than 10% for the boys. Experiences of abuse were the key independent variables for the girls; other expressions of aggression were the key variables for the boys.

Discussion and conclusions: The results suggest that discovery of animal abuse should prompt further enquiries about other problems that a child may have. Detection of animal abuse by a child could offer an early opportunity for intervention to alleviate internalized damage or other aggressive behaviour.