CHILDRENS ATTITUDES

ABOUT THE HUMANE

TREATMENT OF ANIMALS
AND EMPATHY:
ONE-YEAR FOLLOW UP
OF A SCHOOL-BASED
INTERVENTION*
Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D.
and Claudia V. Weber, M.S.

ABSTRACT
This study assessed the maintenance of
the effect of a year-long school-based
humane education program on fourth
grade childrens attitudes toward animals.
Generalization to human-directed empathy was also measured. Using a pretestposttest (Year 1) follow-up (Year 2) design
and ANCOVA, we found that the experimental group (children who experienced
the program) humane attitudes mean was
greater than the control group mean at
initial posttesting and at the Year 2 follow
up. At both Year 1 and Year 2 posttesting,
the enhancement of attitudes toward animals generalized to human-directed
empathy, especially when the quality of
the childrens relations with their pets was
considered as a covariate. The results contribute to the growing literature on the significance of the relations between children
Department of Psychology, Utah State University,
Logan, Utah 84322-2810
*Based on a presentation at the Biennial Meeting of
The Society for Research in Child Development,
March 25, 1993. We thank the teachers, parents,
and children for their participation. Funds for this
research were provided by the Utah State University
Vice President for Research and the National
Association for Humane and Environmental
Education. Mary Bissonette, Shayne Bland, Steve
Murdock, Camille Odell, and Teresa Thompson
assisted in data collection. Our thanks to Karen
Ranson for preparing this manuscript. Request
reprints from: Frank R. Ascione, Department of
Psychology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
84322-2810, E-mail:
FRANKA@FS1.ED.USU.EDU.

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ANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 -1996

and animals, and serve to encourage

humane education efforts.

LITERATURE REVIEW
ost people would agree that
teaching children humane attitudes and actions toward animals
is likely to have a beneficial outcome. Intuitively, humane education appears
to be an indirect way to encourage children to
be kind, caring, and sensitive in their relations
with people. Unfortunately, research results in
this area have been disappointing. Evidence
that humane education leads to enduring
changes in humane attitudes and empathy is
sparse (Ascione, under review).
In a comprehensive review, Ascione
(1992) found few reports of effective
humane education programs. Vockell and
Hodal (1980) implemented a brief schoolbased intervention. Their program consisted
of a one-time visit by a humane educator in
third through sixth grade classrooms. Some
of the classrooms received a visit and printed materials while other classrooms
received only printed materials. It was not
clear how long the visit was or how the
printed material was incorporated into the
classroom. There was no pretest to determine potentially significant differences in
groups prior to the intervention. An additional problem not addressed was the control groups differences on two reportedly
equivalent tests. Predictably, the intervention was reported as ineffective.
Fitzgerald (1981) offered a more intense
intervention and included a pretest. He
implemented 1) repeated treatment (four
lessons, one every two weeks), 2) intensive
treatment (a single classroom session), 3)
light treatment (printed material only), and
4) a control condition (no intervention). He
concluded that the intensive treatment was
effective for conveying positive humane attitudes to children. This study used a master
instructor instead of the childrens classroom teacher. Fitzgerald judged that this
was an effective component of his intervention. It is possible that the children were not

Ascione & Weber

as focused during repeated presentations by

a master instructor as they would be during
a one-time, novel program.
A more intensive (14 hours in the classroom) program developed by Cameron
(1983) offered visual and lecture presentations. The study incorporated a control group
and a pre- and post-test design and found
that intensive intervention may have a positive impact on childrens attitudes toward animals. One weakness of this study is that only
3 of 25 items on Camerons assessment
instrument were related to the care and treatment of companion animals. In addition, a
potential bias was introduced by having the
same individual provide the instruction and
conduct the assessments.
Malcarne (1981) used a one-time, onehour intervention that consisted of either role
playing or group discussion of an animalrelated story. Both treatment groups
expressed more humane attitudes and empathy than the control group. One limitation of
this study was the absence of pretesting.
Using a single humane education presentation that lasted less than 3 hours, Hein
(1987) found that his program significantly
increased humane attitudes. The report suggested the possibility that some of the effects
could have been attributed to large changes
for a small number of children. He also
noted that some of the apparent attitude
changes may have resulted from teaching
to the test.
With only 10 hours of annual classroom
instruction, Ascione, Latham, and Worthen
(1985) found that, at certain grade levels,
the National Association for Humane and
Environmental Educations (NAHEE) curriculum (Savesky and Malcarne 1981)
enhanced childrens attitudes toward the
treatment of animals. This study included a
pre- and posttest design and developmentally appropriate instruments designed to
specifically assess childrens attitudes toward
companion and noncompanion animals.
This study found moderate but inconsistent
enhancement of humane attitudes for children in the experimental groups.
Ascione & Weber

RESEARCH RELATED
TO CURRENT STUDY
Considering previous research design
strengths and limitations, Ascione (1992)
implemented and evaluated a forty-hour
classroom-based humane education intervention program. This study involved 32
classrooms of first, second, fourth, and fifth
grade children divided equally and randomly
into experimental and control groups. The
intervention was based on NAHEE s curriculum-blended guides. Concepts related to
human-animal relationships, companion
animals, wild animals, and farm animals
were integrated into the classroom curriculum by the teachers during the school year.
A variety of teaching techniques were used
that included role playing, decision making,
and creative writing. The children were preand posttested on attitudes toward animals
and human-directed empathy. This study
found that the intervention enhanced the
animal-related attitudes of children differentially depending on grade level. The clearest
effects were found with the fourth graders.
The experimental groups mean score
reflected more positive attitudes toward animals than the control groups. The fourth
graders also showed a generalization effect
from animal-related attitudes to humandirected empathy.

METHOD
To determine if the intervention effects
found with fourth grade children in the
above study were maintained and generalized, a one-year follow-up was completed.
Over 80% of the original sample were located and retested. For this study, current fifth
grade classrooms containing children who
were originally tested in the fourth grade
were identified by class lists. Given the
unevenness of the findings with younger
children in earlier studies, it was decided to
focus on the older population.
Teachers were contacted to arrange testing times. They were given a brief explanation of the study but were unaware of the

ANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 - 1996

189

childrens experimental or control group

status in the original study. To remain consistent, we tested the children in the classroom setting rather than on an individual
basis. The same measures used a year earlier were readministered. Humane attitudes
were assessed with the Intermediate
Attitude Scale (IAS; Ascione, 1988). The
IAS was designed specifically to assess attitudes toward both companion and noncompanion animals. Questions focus on
areas including the care of pets, shooting of
wild animals, and violence toward animals
in the media. Human-directed empathy was
measured by Bryants (1982) Empathy
Scale. The Bryant Scale asks about childrens feelings and behaviors toward other
people who are upset. This instrument
includes two items related to companion
animals.1 For the Companion Animal
Bonding Scale (CABS), parents were asked
to report on their childrens participation in
the care of a pet. They were also asked
how close their child was to their pet. (For a
more detailed description of these instruments see the instrumentation section of
this article).
The testers were not aware of the childrens original group status. The testing
took place over a period of approximately
one month during the spring of 1991.

PARTICIPANTS
Teacher Recruitment
After the children were identified by class
lists, the teachers who had the original students in their classrooms were contacted.
They were given a brief description of the
follow-up study, informed of school district
approval, and asked about a convenient
time for follow-up testing. They were
informed that they would receive a $20
honorarium for assisting in the scheduling
and monitoring of testing.

The analyses described in this study did not differ

when these two items were dropped from the scale.

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ANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 -1996

Pupil Sample and Characteristics

Nearly 95% of the sample were Caucasian,
47% were girls, and 79.7% reported membership in the Mormon church (the state
figure is 69.2%). The demographics of this
area of northern Utah indicate that per
capita income is $7,923 ($200 lower than
the state figure).
At the time of Year 2 posttesting we were
able to locate 80% of the original sample
(E:n=73; C:n=86). Attrition, due to families
moving, accounted for slight changes in the
number of children tested at first and second
posttest. There was no differential loss from
the experimental or control groups. At this
second posttest the children were in the fifth
grade. To determine if the subpopulation of
children who dropped out of the study was
different from the population of children
who stayed in the study, the data were reanalyzed. There was a greater enhancement of
attitudes in the experimental group than in
the control group, at first posttesting, that
was consistent in both the main sample and
the subsample that dropped out.

Instruments and Dependent Measures

Four instruments were used in this study.
The first was a questionnaire to assess childrens experience with companion animals
and other animal-related contexts (e.g., visits
to zoos, farms). The three remaining instruments were the core assessment measures:
Intermediate Attitude Scale (IAS). The IAS
was designed for use with third, fourth, fifth,
and sixth grade pupils. It contains 36 declarative statements with which a child can strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. For each item, the most humane
choice is assigned four points and the least
humane one point; thus scores range from
36 to 144.2 Coefficient alpha for the IAS was
.70 in the 1990 sample. Higher scores reflect
more humane attitudes.
Empathy Index. The Bryant Intermediate
Scale consists of 22 items designed to
assess human empathic tendencies in children. Total scores, using a Likert fourresponse format, range from 22 to 88.
Ascione & Weber

Higher scores reflect greater empathy.

Coefficient alpha for the Emapthy Index
was .78. The IAS and Bryant Index were
group-administered. As often as possible,
pupils absent on testing days were tested as
soon as they returned to class.
Companion Animal Bonding Scale
(CABS). This scale (Poresky, Hendrix,
Mosier, & Samuelson, 1987) assesses the
quality of the relation between a child and
his or her companion animal. In earlier
research (Ascione, 1992), a simple dichotomous (yes/no) reporting of pet ownership
was not related to childrens attitudes toward
animals. Therefore, in our follow-up study
we incorporated this measure of quality of
pet relations. Parents were asked about their
childs level of involvement and feelings of
closeness toward their pet (e.g., How often
does your child clean up after your companion animal? How often do you feel that
your child has a close relationship with your
companion animal?). The eight-item scale
has been administered to parents and found
to have an internal consistency of .90.
Responses to each item are scored on a fivepoint scale from Always to Never yielding a range of total scores from 8 to 40.
Higher scores reflect a stronger bond. This
measure was included to determine if childrens closeness to their pets was related to
their attitudes toward animals.

RESULTS
The experimental group humane attitudes
mean was greater than the control group
mean at initial Year 1 posttesting (F=40.77,
To explore the possibility of a ceiling effect, we
administered the IAS to 283 university students (age
17 to 45) (Weber & Ascione, 1992). A mean IAS
score of 105.9 was found with this sample. This
was comparable to the mean score at the first
posttest for fourth graders (E=112.2, C=103.6) and
fifth graders (E=108.3, C=106.2). In addition, this
instrument was administered to a group of humane
educators. Their mean score of 126.6 was much
higher than either the grade school children or the
adult university students. It seems evident that there
was no ceiling effect for the IAS with either children
or an adult university student sample.

Ascione & Weber

p=.000) and at the Year 2 follow up

(F=3.99, p=0.048). In Figure 1, data are
presented on the four individual classroom
means (arranged in increasing value) for the
fourth-grade experimental and control
groups at pretest, Year 1 posttest, and Year
2 posttest (follow up). In Figure 2 the mean
humane attitude score (IAS) is reported for
the combined fourth-grade experimental
and control classrooms at pretest, Year 1
posttest, and Year 2 posttest.
Stronger, more positive child-pet relationships, as indicated by Companion Animal
Bonding Scale scores, were associated with
higher, more humane scores on the IAS.
When scores on the CABS were used as a
covariate, the maintenance of intervention
effects appeared enhanced. Figure 3 indicates mean humane attitude scores for the
experimental and control groups when the
CABS was used as a covariate.
Although not as large as at Year 1
posttesting, there was a maintenance of
intervention effects for human-directed
empathy at Year 2 posttest. Figure 4 presents the mean score on the Bryant Scale,
with the CABS as a covariate, at pretest,
Year 1 posttest, and Year 2 posttest for the
combined fourth-grade experimental and
control classrooms.

DISCUSSION
This is the first empirical study demonstrating that a humane education intervention
can enhance childrens attitudes toward
animals, that intervention effects are maintained at least one year later, and that there
is generalization from humane attitudes to
human-directed empathy. It is likely that
several factors contributed to the success of
this intervention.

Quality of Relations with Pets

This study incorporated the CABS to
assess the quality of childrens relations
with their pets. According to the Census
Bureau (1993), 75% of the households in
the United States have pets. Pet ownership
is more common in families with schoolANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 - 1996

191

FIGURE 1:

FIGURE 2:

Humane Attitudes-4th Grade

Humane Attitudes-4th Grade

Mean Intermediate
Attitude Scale Scores*

Mean Intermediate
Attitude Scale Scores*
125

125

EXPERIMENTAL (N=73)

EXPERIMENTAL
120

120

CONTROL

115

115

110

110

105

105

100

100

95

95
90

90

PRETEST-Fall 1989

PRETEST
Fall 1989

125
EXPERIMENTAL
120

CONTROL (N=86)

POSTTEST FOLLOW UP
Spring 1990 Spring 1991

IAS/PRE-Poresky/Past Covariates
*Score range 36-144

CONTROL

115

Note: Mean IAS Scores over the three testing times

(using pretest IAS scores as a covariate). (See
Appendix A for means, standard deviations and Ns.)

110
105

FIGURE 3:

100

Humane Attitudes-4th Grade

95

Mean Intermediate
Attitude Scale Scores*

90

POSTTEST-SPRING 1990

125
EXPERIMENTAL (N=28)

125

120

120

115

115

110

110

105

105

100

CONTROL (N=48)

95

100
EXPERIMENTAL
95

CONTROL

90

FOLLOW UP-SPRING 1991

IAS/PRE-Poresky/Past Covariates
*Score range 36-144
Note: Individual classroom mean IAS scores, plotted
in increasing order, over the three testing times. (See
Appendix A for means, standard deviations and Ns.)

192

ANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 -1996

90
PRETEST
Fall 1989

POSTTEST FOLLOW UP
Spring 1990 Spring 1991

IAS/PRE-Poresky/Past Covariates
*Score range 36-144
Note: Mean IAS scores over the three testing
times (using pretest IAS scores and quality of
child-pet relation as covariates). (See Appendix A
for means, standard deviations and Ns.)

Ascione & Weber

The NAHEE program is curriculum

blended. Teaching humane attitudes is
integrated with the teaching of other
subjects. This method minimized or eliminated the need for additional classroom
time to be set aside for teaching humane
attitudes and behaviors.
The initial intervention consisted of at least
40 hours of classroom instruction over the
school year. This was a more time-intensive
intervention than reported in previous
research. It is probable that the intensity,
duration, and quality of the intervention contributed to the maintenance of effects.

FIGURE 4:
Human-Directed Empathy -4th Grade
Mean Empathy Scale Scores*
75
EXPERIMENTAL (N=28)
70

CONTROL (N=45a )

65
60
55
50

Developmental Approach

45
PRETEST
Fall 1989

Both the intervention (NAHEEs program)

and the assessment instruments were developmentally sensitive. They were designed to
be grade and age appropriate. This is an
important factor that is often overlooked or
not emphasized in research in this area.

POSTTEST FOLLOW UP
Spring 1990 Spring 1991

BRYANT/PRE-Poresky/Past Covariates
a48 for POSTTEST
*Score range 22-28
Note: Mean human-directed empathy (BRYANT)
scores (using BRYANT pretest scores and quality
of child-pet relation as covariates). (See Appendix
A for means, standard deviations and Ns.)

Familiar Instructor
Humane attitudes were taught to the children by their familiar classroom instructor. It
is possible that the information was conveyed more effectively than would be possible with an unfamiliar, master instructor or a
researcher. Memories of classroom chaos
under a substitute teacher may offer some
clue to the possible difficulties with providing
instruction by outside instructors.

aged children and adolescents than in families without children (Albert & Bulcroft,
1988). Given this information, it is surprising that few reports on humane education
interventions account for this relevant
factor. Controlling for pet ownership and
childrens involvement with their pets was
an important aspect of this research. This
study found that childrens involvement
with pets is positively related to their
humane attitudes toward animals.

Limitations

Nature of the Intervention

A forty-hour, multimodal, curriculum blended
program was used for the original intervention. As noted previously, a review of the literature reveals that researchers in this area
have used a broad range of intervention
methods. Techniques used included onetime lecture, role playing, or written educational material. This study incorporated several different techniques that had been tried
alone in previous research (i.e., visual, aural,
and behavioral modes of teaching).

Ascione & Weber

This study had several clear findings and

design strengths. We hope it is a useful addition to research in the ongoing area of
humane education and that our discussion of
this studys limitations will facilitate the work
of other researchers.
As children mature it is probable that they
acquire an enhanced social awareness of
appropriate humane responses. Part of the
positive attitudinal changes noted in this followup study for both experimental and control
children may be attributed to maturation rather
than effects of the intervention. Figure 5 presents data on the correlation between humane

ANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 - 1996

193

FIGURE 5:
Correlations Between Humane
Attitudes Toward Animals
and Human-Directed Empathy
0.7
0.6
.49

0.5
0.4
r
0.3

.34
.31

0.2
0.1
0
6-8 yr-olds
(N=365)

9-11 yr-olds
(N=400)

Adults
(N=283)

Age Group
Note: Correlations between scores on measures of
humane attitudes toward animals and measures of
human-directed empathy at three age levels.

attitudes toward animals and human-directed

empathy (Weber & Ascione, 1992). The correlation increases with increasing age. It is possible that the maintenance of generalization from
animal to human-directed empathy is related to
maturation, reinforcing the importance of
including control groups in our studies.
In addition, there may be an increased
societal awareness of the importance of
humane attitudes over a time period of one
year. Exposure to changes in societal values,
especially for experimental group children
whose consciousness was increased, could

contribute to the maintenance of effects.

Finally, the effects were maintained at
only one grade level (the fourth grade children). It was not possible to determine the
specific factor or combination of factors that
led to this limited effect. Maturation, quality
of instruction, appropriateness of educational materials, and the nature of the
assessment instruments may all influence
the maintenance of humane attitudes.
The natural process of learning involves a
continuous building on previous knowledge.
Subjects such as mathematics and reading
are taught throughout the entire academic
career at increasingly complex levels. This
intense, long-term approach leads to a maintenance of effects. School systems are financially pressed and teachers are pushed to
provide more instruction with fewer available
resources. The curriculum-blended approach
implemented in this study allowed humane
education to be taught with a minimal extra
burden on the classroom teacher. This study
provided evidence that instruction for only
one year led to a maintenance of effects one
year later. If humane education was provided
in the classroom throughout a childs academic career, it seems probable that a stronger
maintenance of humane attitudes and
human-related empathy would be seen.
Future research could focus on increasing the
duration of humane education intervention.
Humane education in the classroom can be
an effective way to increase childrens sensitivity toward other living beings.

REFERENCES
Albert, A. and Bulcroft, K. 1988. Pets, families,
and the life course. Journal of Marriage and
the Family 50:543-552.
Ascione, F.R. 1988. Intermediate Attitude
Scale: Assessment of Third through Sixth
Graders Attitudes Toward the Treatment of
Animals. Logan: Utah State University.
Ascione, F.R. 1992. Enhancing childrens attitudes about the humane treatment of animals:
Generalization to human-directed empathy.
Anthrozos 5:176-191.

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ANTHROZOS, Vol. IX, No. 4 -1996

Ascione, F.R. Under review. Humane education

research: Evaluating efforts to foster childrens
kindness and caring toward animals.
Ascione, F.R., Latham, G.I. and Worthen, B.R.
1985. Final report year 2: An experimental
study. Evaluation of the Humane Education
Curriculum Guides. Report to the National
Association for the Advancement of Humane
Education.
Bryant, B.K. 1982. An index of empathy for children and adolescents. Child Development
53:413-425.

Ascione & Weber

Cameron, R.K.K. 1983. The effects of two

instructional treatments on eighth-grade students attitudes toward animal life. Unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Purdue University.
Fitzgerald, T.A., Jr. 1981. Evaluating humane
education: The Jefferson County study.
Humane Education 5:21-22.
Hein, G.E. 1987. Massachusetts Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals outreach program evaluation. Final Report. Boston: MSPCA.
Malcarne, V. 1981. The effects of roleplay and
maximization of perceived similarity on
childrens empathy with other children and
animals. Unpublished honors thesis, Stanford
University.
Poresky, R.H., Hendrix, C., Mosier, J.E. and
Samuelson, M.L. 1987. The Companion Animal
Bonding Scale: Internal reliability and construct
validity. Psychological Reports 67:743-746.

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Savesky, K. and Malcarne, V. (eds.) 1981. People

and Animals: A Humane Education
Curriculum Guide. East Haddam, CT:
National Association for the Advancement of
Humane Education.
Vockell, E. and Hodal, F. 1980. Developing
humane attitudes: What does research tell us?
Humane Education 4:19-21.
United States Bureau of the Census. 1993.
Statistical Abstract of the United States:
1993 (113th edition). Washington DC:
USGPO.
Weber, C.V. and Ascione, F.R. 1992, July.
Humane attitudes and human empathy:
Relations in adulthood. Keynote address at
the Sixth International Conference on Human
Animal Interactions, Montreal, Canada.

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