A Critical Review of Research on the Human/Companion Animal Relationship: 1988 To 1993

Fifty-two research reports from the human/companion animal relationship literature published from 1988 to 1993 were reviewed using a shortened form of the Selby Research, Assessment Form II (RAF) Descriptive data were analyzed for characteristics such as attributes of authors, grant funding, purposes, quality of literature reviews and conceptual frameworks, settings and sampling, research designs, and implications for future research. Qualitative data describing results of studies were summarized. Over half of the studies were published in Anthrozoös and were not grant funded. These were primarily nonexperimental studies using nonprobability, nongeneralizable samples. Social support was the most frequently cited framework. Understudied populations were rural groups, the middle aged, adolescents, and institutionalized elders. Few errors were committed in describing instruments or reporting analyses of data.