초등학생의 애완동물 소유 및 상호작용에 관한 연구

Pet Animal Ownership and Interaction of Elementary School Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the elementary school students’ pet animal ownership and their interaction with pet animals. The population for this study consisted of all the 5th and 6th grade students currently attending at elementary schools in Seoul, Kyunggi, and Taegu. A stratified random sample of 540 students was chosen for this study. A survey instrument including pet animal ownership items and child-pet animal interaction scale was developed. While a third of elementary school students were currently fostering pets in their home, four fifths of them had the past experiences, and the nearly ninety percent had the desire in the future. The kinds of currently fostering pets were dog, fish, hamster, etc.; the past fostering pets were dog, fish, hamster, turtle, rabbit, bird, cat, etc; the pets in their fostering desire were dog, rabbit, cat, hamster, bird, guinea pig, fish, turtle, iguana, etc. The interaction level with pet animals of the students was lower than the theoretical average of the instrument. The their interaction was different according to the kinds of pet and was more related with the past pet fostering experiences than the current ownerships.