Funder

Ronald E. McNair Scholars Summer Research Institute; Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Fall 9-21-2018

Publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

Publisher Location

Las Vegas (Nev.)

Abstract

From wild wolves to ‘fur babies,’ dogs have transcended their relationships with humans after years of domestication and evolved pet keeping dynamics. This research study explores human and dog relationships through cultural perspectives. My research specifically targets the Mexican-American population in Las Vegas in order to understand diverse attitudes towards dogs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether there are more positive attitudes towards pet dogs within Mexican communities, or if negative attitudes are still present like they have been in past Mexican traditions. While previous studies have presented increasing dog attachment bonds within Americans, I will instead focus on Mexican minorities in the Las Vegas community. Bilingual self-report surveys were distributed in order to examine gender, age, ethnicity, number of pets, and dogs’ living styles. In order to target the desired population, public venues such as dog parks, pet stores, and other cultural events within the Mexican community were examined. Using IBM SPSS v.24, the attitudes Mexican-Americans showed similarly positive attitudes toward pet dogs as American pet owners. The difference between Mexican and Mexican-Americans attitudes towards pet dogs was statistically significant (p = 0.5). Future research may focus on changing attitudes towards foster and assisted animal therapy dog programs within Mexican or Mexican-American communities.

Keywords

Dog attachment; Pet dogs; Mexican-Americans; Americans

Disciplines

Community-Based Research | Race and Ethnicity

File Format

pdf

File Size

519 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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