Pet ownership and the reliability of the companion animal bonding scale among participants of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study

A psychometric evaluation of the Companion Animal Bonding Scale (CABS) was conducted among participants of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study(MACS). In 1991, MACS participants in Baltimore, Chicago, and Los Angeles were asked to complete a questionnaire about pets, which included the CABS for their favorite pet. Follow-up questionnaires were administered to Los Angeles participants in 1992 and 1993. Internal consistency and intraobserver reliability of the CABS were determined by measuring the Cronbach alpha and test-retest-retest correlation coefficient, respectively. Forty-eight percent of respondents (907/1,872) at the three sites owned pets, of whom 896 (99%) completed a CABS, The Cronbach alpha for the CABS was .79. Among Los Angeles participants, the test-retest-retest correlation coefficient for the 228 pet owners who completed the CABS for the same pet in each of the three years was .81, and was highest among the 98 dog owners (.86) and the 92 cat owners (.86). The Companion Animal Bonding Scale is a short, rapid, easy to administer instrument which is readily acceptable, and shows adequate internal consistency and intraobserver reliability for dog and cat owners.