A study of Queensland psychologists has shown that certain indicators of childhood disturbance may be being overlooked due to the nature of diagnostic criteria.

Researchers are concerned that psychologists may not be attending to disclosures of childhood violence to animals where there are no other disorder markers present.

See an interview with Dr Tania Signal here.

Dr Tania SignalCQUniversity's Dr Tania Signal and Dr Vanessa Ghea, along with Dr Nicola Taylor from Flinders University, have been looking at how psychologists address cases of childhood violence to animals.

The study included responses from 98 psychologists registered with the Psychologists Board of Queensland.

There is extensive literature that links childhood animal cruelty with antisocial and deviant behaviour, however the researchers believe that psychologists need to be aware of the evidence that suggests that childhood animal cruelty can be a relatively common childhood occurrence.

Dr Signal said not all children who have been known to harm animals are candidates for conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder, but could be experiencing more general emotional disturbances which need to be looked into.

She said if their symptoms are not addressed the children may not develop adequate social and empathy skills for life.

Dr Vanessa GheaDr Ghea said the study showed that even when psychologists acknowledged the importance of childhood animal cruelty, only 9% of those taking part in the study listed it as a key area for intervention.

She said the main reason was the lack of access to resources, support and training on the issue.