Existing research has shown that humans develop profound emotional bonds with their pets which in turn have numerous physical, as well as psychological advantages. Attachment to pets, as a domain of scientific research, is still relatively unexplored in Croatia and, subsequently, there are no valid measures of this construct. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to contribute to research on human attachment to pets by determining the psychometric characteristics of the translated and adapted Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (Johnson, Garrity and Stallones, 1992). This scale was designed to measure intensity of human attachment to their pets. It was used in 144 Croatian dog owners (62.5% female dog owners, 37.5% male dog owner; average age 34.3 years). Considering the preliminary nature of this study, the results have shown the pure factor structure of this instrument (only one factor was isolated –“general attachment” explaining 51.5% total variance). Confirmation of its homogeneity was also supported by high internal consistency as well as high overall reliability (α = 0.95). Additionally, the intensity of attachment to pets significantly changes with the level of generativity, that is, owners who are more attached to their pets, are also more generative. Due to the methodological limitations of this study, mostly concerning the representativeness of the sample, additional psychometrical validations of Adapted Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale are required.

attachment, pets, generativity