Submitted by Administrator on Sun, 10/05/2015 - 17:53
Research carried out by a student on the Department's MPhil in Social and Developmental Psychology course has been covered by the BBC Education News and the University's Research news this week.
Matt Cassels (MPhil in SDP 2013-14) investigated the importance of pet relationships to children, using the research data set from the Toddlers Up Project, led by Professor Claire Hughes at the Centre for Family Research. Matt's research was funded by ESRC and by the WALTHAM Foundation.
In his study, Matt employed a pet attachment scale, a novel tool, adapted from a human attachment measurement tool. Matt's findings highlight the importance of pet relationships to children who are experiencing adversity. Such children are more likely to have stronger relationships with their pets, compared with children in their peer group who are not experiencing adversity. To read more about Matt's findings to date, see Cambridge Research News http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/childs-best-friend and BBC Education News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32608771 (both published on 7 May 2015).
Matt is now studying for a PhD in the Department of Psychiatry, supported by funding from the Gates Cambridge Trust.