PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Foster care programs at animal shelters have emerged as an important tool for promoting animal welfare and supporting shelter life-saving efforts. Preliminary evidence suggests that foster caregiving may also be health-promoting for humans. The goals of this study were to investigate the experiences of foster caregivers at animal shelters based on measures of positive and negative affect, quality of life, and grief, and to describe human-animal attachment among foster populations. Between March 2022 and 2023, 131 foster caregivers from five shelters in the United States completed three online surveys before, during and after providing foster care to a shelter animal. Positive affect decreased significantly from baseline to post-foster (F = 5.71, p<0.01), particularly among dog caregivers (F = 6.17, p<0.01). Negative affect remained unchanged (F = 0.47, p = 0.63). Foster caregivers perceived their foster animal provided companionship, affection and emotional support, although dog foster caregivers reported significantly higher emotional (U = 313.50, p<0.01) and social/physical quality of life (t = 4.42, p<0.01) than cat foster caregivers. Caregivers reported low mean avoidant and anxious attachment, suggesting they were able to develop secure bonds with their foster animals. Retention of fosters was also strong, with 86% of caregivers reporting they were likely to provide foster care in the future. Our findings suggest that fostering at animal shelters may serve as a One Health intervention to offer companionship, affection and emotional support to human caregivers while promoting animal welfare. However, these benefits did not translate to improvements in caregiver mental wellbeing, so caution should be applied when considering foster caregiving as a potential mental health promotion tool.
摘要：
动物收容所的寄养计划已成为促进动物福利和支持收容所挽救生命的重要工具。初步证据表明，寄养照料也可能促进人类的健康。这项研究的目的是调查在动物收容所寄养照顾者的经验，基于积极和消极影响的措施，生活质量,和悲伤，并描述寄养人群中的人与动物依恋。在2022年3月至2023年之间，来自美国五个庇护所的131名寄养者之前完成了三项在线调查，在为收容所的动物提供寄养期间和之后。从基线到寄养后，积极影响显着降低（F=5.71，p<0.01），特别是在狗的照顾者（F=6.17，p<0.01）。负面影响保持不变（F=0.47，p=0.63）。寄养者认为他们的寄养动物提供了陪伴，感情和情感支持，尽管狗寄养的看护人报告的情绪（U=313.50，p<0.01）和社会/身体生活质量（t=4.42，p<0.01）明显高于猫寄养的看护人。照顾者报告平均回避和焦虑依恋较低，表明他们能够与寄养动物建立安全的联系。福斯特的保留也很强，86%的看护人报告说他们将来可能会提供寄养服务.我们的研究结果表明，在动物收容所进行的寄养可能是一种“单一健康”干预措施，以提供陪伴，在促进动物福利的同时，对人类照顾者的情感和情感支持。然而,这些好处并没有转化为改善护理人员的心理健康，因此，在考虑将寄养照料作为潜在的心理健康促进工具时，应谨慎行事。
