Small Pilot Survey on Parents’ Perception of the Relationship between Children and Pets (original) (raw)
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Young Children's Companion Animal Bonding and Adults' Pet Attitudes: A Retrospective Study
Psychological Reports, 1988
Adults' attitudes toward pets were related to their ages when they had their first pets and the bonds they formed with their most important pets. Contemporary pet attitudes were more strongly related to childhood bonding scores than contemporary bonding scores. Adults' contemporary attitudes toward pets were positively correlated with their retrospective childhood Companion Animal Bonding scores. The Companion Animal Semantic Differential pet attitude measures were also most positive for those who had a first pet when they were younger than 6 yr. and least positive for those who had a first pet when they were over 10 yr. old. The childhood bonding scores were more predictive of contemporary pet attitudes than contemporary bonding scores. No significant differences were found between pet owners and nonowners.
The concept of " pets " as perceived by 4-8 year-old children
A number of studies examining the interaction of children with animals have shown the benefits of animals on the physical, mental, emotional and social development of children. Especially thanks to pets, children can learn a great many things like love of nature and animals, in addition to developing a sense of responsibility and loyalty and building good relationships. This study aimed to put forward the concept of “pets” as perceived by children aged between four and eight. The study group used in this research consisted of kindergarten and 1st - 2nd grade primary school children (n = 94) from Bursa Province (Turkey) over the 2014-2015 school year. Semi-structured interview questions and the children’s drawings of “pet themed” pictures were employed as data collection tools. A document review of the collected data was conducted and analyzed using content analysis techniques. According to the results obtained, while a large number of the children knew the concept of “pets”, they had different ideas about the characteristics of pets, as was revealed in their drawings. Moreover, regarding the perception of pets, there appeared to be a difference between children who had pets and those who did not. Keywords: early childhood, child, pets, perception.
Why Children Keep Pets: The Influence of Child and Family Characteristics
Anthrozoos, 1992
Animal Welfare 1993, 2: 321-337 A questionnaire survey of 385 UK-based university students was used to investigate whether there was an association between pet keeping in childhood and humane attitudes in young adulthood. Subjects gave detailed, retrospective reports of the pets they had kept during their childhoods, and a variety of attitude scales and open-ended questions were used to measure their current attitudes concerning the welfare of both animals and humans. Higher levels of childhood pet keeping were related to more positive attitudes towards pet animals and greater concerns about the welfare of non-pet animals and humans. Ethical food avoidance practices (eg vegetarianism); membership of animal welfare and environmental organizations were also found to be associated with pet keeping during childhood. Knowledge of the experiences that underlie existing variation in humane attitudes will greatly assist the development of more effective humane education programmes in the future.
Pet Ownership, Type of Pet and Socio-Emotional Development of School Children
Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 1999
The current study was designed to compare the socio-emotional characteristics of school children pet owners and children without pets and to examine whether the type of pet is a variable which can differentiate the socio-emotional development of their owners. The subjects, 425 girls and 401 boys, were students of fourth (n=265), sixth (n=295) and eighth (n=266) grade of elementary schools from the metropolitan area of Zagreb, Croatia. Socio-emotional variables assessed in the study were: child attachment to pet, child prosocial orientation, empathy, loneliness, perception of family climate and social anxiety. The data showed that 54.4% of children in the sample were pet owners (26.2% of children in the study had a dog, 9.2% had a cat, and 19.0% had some other pet). In order to answer the main research question, several analyses of variance (gender by grade by pet ownership) were computed for each criterion of socio-emotional development. Significant main effects were obtained for empathy, prosocial orientation and pet attachment, with dog owners being more empathic and prosocially oriented than non-owners, and dog owners and cat owners being more attached to their pets than owners of other kinds of pets. Additional analyses of variance were computed in order to examine the role of attachment in the socio-emotional functioning of the children. Subjects were divided in three sub-groups: nonowners, lower then average attached owners, and higher than average attached owners. Children who scored higher than average on the attachment to pets scale showed significantly higher scores on the empathy and prosocial orientation scales than non-owners and children who scored lower than average on the attachment to pets scale. It was also found that children with higher levels of attachment to pets rated their family climate significantly better than children who had lower attachment to pets.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF COMPANION ANIMALS IN THE PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN
2014
ABSTRACT In nowadays more and more studies focus on the beneficial effects of the bond between children and pets and the benefits in the psychosocial development of children by this bond. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship of children with pets and explore the psychosocial effects exerted on children through contact with pets. Materials and Methods : Material of study consists of articles concerning the subject that were found mainly in the Medline electronic database, the Hellenic Academic Libraries Link (HEAL-Link) and in the Google Scholar search engine. Results : Children who grow up with pets , have beneficial effects on the sociability and emotional development. Moreover this interaction with animals seems to increase empathy , self-esteem , responsibility and autonomy . Pets provide emotional relief and support to the child, creating a feeling of security in stressful situations . Studies show that pets can be a motivation for children's learning and can benefit their cognitive development as well. Conclusions : Children who develop strong bond and close relationship with a pet seems to have greater empathy than children with a weak relationship with the animal or those who had no pet at all . Also the development of social skills seems to depend in the importance of the bond that have been growth and not simply the existence of a pet at home . Keywords: child, human-animal bond, development, psychosocial.
ROLE OF HOUSEHOLD PETS ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR & LIFE
IAEME PUBLICATION, 2020
The relationship of human beings and animals dates back to the Stone Age. From the times unknown we have seen or heard of the special relation a human being shares with the animals, tamed or wild. The fossil evidences from various cultures across the globe have proved the same. The trend of having animals at home has changed dramatically with the shift from rural to industrialized and urban lifestyle. Despite that, the role and impact of animals in human life and on human behavior does not change. Animals had always proven to be the best of companions in distress, loneliness, and to the sick or handicapped. A healthy body and mind is a cure to all disease and stress, and animals play a very important role in providing the same. This paper aims at studying the importance of pets and their role in the households
Pet ownership in childhood: its influence on attitudes towards animals
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 1993
Animal Welfare 1993, 2: 321-337 A questionnaire survey of 385 UK-based university students was used to investigate whether there was an association between pet keeping in childhood and humane attitudes in young adulthood. Subjects gave detailed, retrospective reports of the pets they had kept during their childhoods, and a variety of attitude scales and open-ended questions were used to measure their current attitudes concerning the welfare of both animals and humans. Higher levels of childhood pet keeping were related to more positive attitudes towards pet animals and greater concerns about the welfare of non-pet animals and humans. Ethical food avoidance practices (eg vegetarianism); membership of animal welfare and environmental organizations were also found to be associated with pet keeping during childhood. Knowledge of the experiences that underlie existing variation in humane attitudes will greatly assist the development of more effective humane education programmes in the future.
Chapter 8: Understanding Cross-Species Parenting: A Case for Pets as Children
Clinician's Guide to Treating Companion Animal Issues, 2018
This book chapter, included in Clinician's Guide to Treating Companion Animal Issues, provides evidence for the role of pets in childless and childfree homes. In addition to describing who is most likely to parent pets, the chapter explains how pets fulfill the role of children in a home, with clinical considerations for the practitioner that pet parenting may be an appropriate and adaptive response as opposed to a pathology.
Pet–Human Relationships: Dogs versus Cats
Animals
The study of human–animal interactions has increased, focusing on the dog–owner relationship, leaving a lag in research on the cat–owner relationship and practically a total absence of studies that compare the dog–owner relationship with the cat-owner relationship. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to make this comparison based on the perception of people living with both dogs and cats, considering interaction, emotional closeness, and perceived cost of the relationship. A total of 132 residents in Mexico participated. To evaluate the pet–human relationship, the dog and cat versions of the Monash dog owner relationship scale were used, thus obtaining comparable scores for the relationship with dogs and cats. Based on what the owners reported, significant differences were found. Relationships with cats were better than relationships with dogs, a finding that was confirmed when comparing male dogs and cats and when comparing female dogs and cats. It was concluded that ...
International journal of environmental research and public health, 2010
In developed nations, approximately half of household environments contain pets. Studies of Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) have proposed that there are health benefits and risks associated with pet ownership. However, accurately demonstrating and understanding these relationships first requires a better knowledge of factors associated with ownership of different pet types. A UK birth cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), were used to collect pet ownership data from the mothers, from gestation to child age 10 years old. 14,663 children were included in the study, of which mothers of 13,557 reported pet information at gestation, and 7,800 by age 10. Pet types recorded include cat, dog, rabbit, rodent, bird, fish and tortoise/turtle. The dataset also contains a number of demographic, socioeconomic and behavioural variables relevant to human health behaviour. Logistic regression was used to build multivariable models for ownership of each pet type at age ...