Companion Animal Attachment and Military Transfer

Human attachment levels to companion animals were compared to whether a companion animal accompanied a military family at transfer time. Attachment levels were measured by combining preexisting subscale instruments to form a 21-item pet attachment scale. Data were collected through a mail survey (67% response rate) of registered pet owners who were to transfer within six months from 13 military installations. Attachment levels to companion animals were positively associated with taking the pet upon transferring (X2=11.44, p <.01).A semantic differential scale was employed to measure “perceived” attachment levels, which were compared with the attachment levels from the combined subscale instrument. These two scales had a strong association with each other (X2=65.70, p<.001). Factor analysis of the combined subscale instrument yielded two factors, “pet companionship” and “pet affection,” and reliability analysis estimated Cronbach's Alpha of .95.