Spotlight on the psychological basis of childhood pet attachment and its implications

Glucocorticoid response to naturalistic interactions between children and dogs

Although research has shown that pets appear to provide certain types of social support to children, little is known about the physiological bases of these effects, especially in naturalistic contexts. In this study, we investigated the effect of free-form interactions between children (ages 8-10 years) and dogs on salivary cortisol concentrations in both species. We further investigated the role of the child-dog relationship by comparing interactions with the child's pet dog to interactions with an unfamiliar dog or a nonsocial control condition, and modeled associations between survey measures of the human-animal bond and children's physiological responses. In both children and dogs, salivary cortisol decreased from pre- to post-interaction; the effect was strongest for children interacting with an unfamiliar dog (compared to their pet dog) and for the pet dogs (compared to the unfamiliar dog). We found minimal evidence for associations between cortisol output and behaviors coded from video, but children scoring higher on survey measures of the human-animal bond exhibited the greatest reductions in cortisol when interacting with dogs. Self-reported loneliness was not related to cortisol or the human-animal bond, but measures of both loneliness and the human-animal bond were higher among children who participated after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, relative to those who participated before the pandemic. This study builds on previous work that investigated potential stress-buffering effects of human-animal interaction during explicit stressors and demonstrates important physiological correlates of naturalistic interactions between children and dogs, similar to those that occur in daily life.

Longitudinal effects of dog ownership, dog acquisition, and dog loss on children's movement behaviours: findings from the PLAYCE cohort study

INTRODUCTION

Regular physical activity is important for children's physical and mental health, yet many children do not achieve recommended amounts of physical activity. Dog ownership has been associated with increased physical activity in children, however, there have been no longitudinal studies examining this relationship. This study used data from the Play Spaces and Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) cohort study to examine the longitudinal effects of dog ownership status on children's movement behaviours.

METHODS

Change in dog ownership from preschool (wave 1, age 2-5) to fulltime school (wave 2, age 5-7) was used as a natural experiment with four distinct dog ownership groups: continuing non-dog owners (n = 307), continuing dog owners (n = 204), dog acquired (n = 58), and dog loss (n = 31; total n = 600). Daily movement behaviours, including physical activity, sedentary time, sleep, and screen time, were measured using accelerometry and parent-report surveys. Differences between groups over time and by sex were tested using linear mixed effects regression models.

RESULTS

Girls who acquired a dog increased their light intensity activities and games by 52.0 min/day (95%CI 7.9, 96.0) and girls who lost a dog decreased their light intensity activities and games by 62.1 min/day (95%CI -119.3, -4.9) compared to no change among non-dog owners. Girls and boys who acquired a dog increased their unstructured physical activity by 6.8 (95%CI 3.2, 10.3) and 7.1 (95%CI 3.9, 10.3) occasions/week, compared to no changes among non-dog owners. Girls and boys who lost a dog reduced their unstructured physical activity by 10.2 (95%CI -15.0, -5.3) and 7.7 (95%CI -12.0, -3.5) occasions/week. Girls who lost a dog decreased their total physical activity by 46.3 min/day (95%CI -107.5, 14.8) compared to no change among non-dog owners. Continuing dog ownership was typically not associated with movement behaviours. Dog ownership group was not associated with changes in sleep and had mixed associations with screen time.

CONCLUSION

The positive influence of dog ownership on children's physical activity begins in early childhood and differs by child sex. Further research should examine the specific contributions dog-facilitated physical activity makes to children's overall physical activity, including the intensity and duration of dog walking and play.

Impact of pet dog or cat exposure during childhood on mental illness during adolescence: a cohort study

BACKGROUND

In our prior study of 643 children, ages 4-11 years, children with pet dogs had lower anxiety scores than children without pet dogs. This follow-up study examines whether exposure to pet dogs or cats during childhood reduces the risk of adolescent mental health (MH) disorders.

METHODS

Using a retrospective cohort study design, we merged our prior study database with electronic medical record (EMR) data to create an analytic database. Common MH diagnoses (anxiety, depression, ADHD) occurring from the time of prior study enrollment to 10/27/21 were identified using ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. We used proportional hazards regression to compare time to MH diagnoses, between youths with and without pets. From 4/1/20 to 10/27/21, parents and youth in the prior study were interviewed about the amount of time the youth was exposed to a pet and how attached s/he was to the pet. Exposure included having a pet dog at baseline, cumulative exposure to a pet dog or cat during follow-up, and level of pet attachment. The main outcomes were anxiety diagnosis, any MH diagnosis, and MH diagnosis associated with a psychotropic prescription.

RESULTS

EMR review identified 571 youths with mean age of 14 years (range 11-19), 53% were male, 58% had a pet dog at baseline. During follow-up (mean of 7.8 years), 191 children received a MH diagnosis: 99 were diagnosed with anxiety (52%), 61 with ADHD (32%), 21 with depression (11%), 10 with combined MH diagnoses (5%). After adjusting for significant confounders, having a pet dog at baseline was associated with lower risk of any MH diagnosis (HR = 0.74, p = .04) but not for anxiety or MH diagnosis with a psychotropic prescription. Among the 241 (42%) youths contacted for follow-up, parent-reported cumulative exposure to pet dogs was borderline negatively associated with occurrence of any MH diagnosis (HR = 0.74, p = .06). Cumulative exposure to the most attached pet (dog or cat) was negatively associated with anxiety diagnosis (HR = 0.57, p = .006) and any MH diagnosis (HR = 0.64, p = .013).

CONCLUSION

Cumulative exposure to a highly attached pet dog or cat is associated with reduced risk of adolescent MH disorders.

Child–Dog Attachment, Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology: The Mediating Role of Positive and Negative Behaviours

Emerging evidence suggests that pet dogs can offer features of a secure attachment which has been associated with healthy psychological development across the lifespan. Limited research has investigated the underpinning mechanisms that may contribute to the benefits and risks of child–dog attachment during childhood. This study aimed to test the potential mediating role of caregiver-observed positive and negative child–dog behaviours, on the relationship between child-reported child–dog attachment, and caregiver-reported child psychopathology and emotion regulation. Data from 117 caregiver reports and 77 child self-reports were collected through an online survey in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parallel mediation analyses indicated that child–dog attachment had a significant indirect effect on conduct problems through negative child–dog behaviours only. Child–dog attachment had a significant indirect effect on emotional symptoms, peer problems, prosocial behaviour, emotion regulation, and emotional lability/negativity through both positive and negative child–dog behaviours. Although this study found modest effect sizes, the findings suggest that the types of interactions that children engage in with their pet dogs may be important mechanisms through which pet attachment contributes to psychological development throughout childhood, and therefore further attention is warranted. Positive and safe child–dog interactions can be facilitated through education and intervention, which may have implications for promoting positive developmental outcomes.

The Intertwined Well-Being of Children and Non-Human Animals: An Analysis of Animal Control Reports Involving Children

The well-being of children and non-human animals (subsequently referred to as animals) is often intertwined. Communities are unlikely to be able to best protect humans from abuse and harm unless they are working to ensure the safety of animals who reside there as well. This study is the first to utilize U.S. animal control report data and narratives to explore how children are involved in cases of animal cruelty. Children engage in abusive acts toward animals, alone, or along with peers and/or adults. Children were found to inflict abuse most often with their hands or feet as opposed to with a weapon or other object. A total of 85% of animal cruelty perpetrated by children was toward a dog or cat. Key differences between how children are involved in acts of cruelty to companion animals compared with acts involving wild animals are described and warrant further study. The cases of animal abuse or neglect reported by children were among the most severe in the study, and often involved an adult perpetrator known to the child. Neighbors rarely report child abuse or intimate partner violence in the United States, but 89% of the animal cruelty cases involving children in this study were reported by a neighbor or passerby. Although children involved in reports as a perpetrator or reporter were most often in early adolescence, children involved in cross-reports between child welfare and animal control were often under the age of 5. Improved cross-reporting and stronger partnerships between human and animal welfare agencies may provide opportunity for earlier intervention and is likely to better many human and animal lives.

Human allergy to cats: A review of the impact on cat ownership and relinquishment

Practical relevance:

Cats have become increasingly common as companion animals, and in many countries their popularity now exceeds that of dogs. At the same time, human allergies (including allergy to cats) have been increasing and it has been estimated that globally up to 10-20% of human adults are sensitised to cats.

Aim:

This review summarises the available published data on how human allergy to cats affects cat ownership and considers the implications of the findings on the wider human-cat bond and how adverse effects can be minimised.

Evidence base:

Online databases were searched for all original studies up to December 2020 that had quantified the impact of human allergy to cats on ownership or relinquishment. Objective quantifiable data appeared to fall into three broad outcomes - (1) choosing to avoid cat ownership; (2) relinquishment of owned cats; and (3) return of cats after acquisition from a rehoming centre. The data retrieved on these topics are the focus of this review. In some studies, data from cats and dogs were combined and these have also been included in the review.

Working Dog Training for the Twenty-First Century

Dogs are trained for a variety of working roles including assistance, protection, and detection work. Many canine working roles, in their modern iterations, were developed at the turn of the 20th century and training practices have since largely been passed down from trainer to trainer. In parallel, research in psychology has advanced our understanding of animal behavior, and specifically canine learning and cognition, over the last 20 years; however, this field has had little focus or practical impact on working dog training. The aims of this narrative review are to (1) orient the reader to key advances in animal behavior that we view as having important implications for working dog training, (2) highlight where such information is already implemented, and (3) indicate areas for future collaborative research bridging the gap between research and practice. Through a selective review of research on canine learning and behavior and training of working dogs, we hope to combine advances from scientists and practitioners to lead to better, more targeted, and functional research for working dogs.

Enhancing the Selection and Performance of Working Dogs

Dogs perform a variety of integral roles in our society, engaging in work ranging from assistance (e.g., service dogs, guide dogs) and therapy to detection (e.g., search-and-rescue dogs, explosive detection dogs) and protection (e.g., military and law enforcement dogs). However, success in these roles, which requires dogs to meet challenging behavioral criteria and to undergo extensive training, is far from guaranteed. Therefore, enhancing the selection process is critical for the effectiveness and efficiency of working dog programs and has the potential to optimize how resources are invested in these programs, increase the number of available working dogs, and improve working dog welfare. In this paper, we review two main approaches for achieving this goal: (1) developing selection tests and criteria that can efficiently and effectively identify ideal candidates from the overall pool of candidate dogs, and (2) developing approaches to enhance performance, both at the individual and population level, via improvements in rearing, training, and breeding. We summarize key findings from the empirical literature regarding best practices for assessing, selecting, and improving working dogs, and conclude with future steps and recommendations for working dog organizations, breeders, trainers, and researchers.

Grieving the loss of a pet: A qualitative systematic review

Animal owners who experience the death of a beloved family pet or companion animal may experience feelings of grief and loss that are synonymous with the death of a human. This systematic review synthesized 19 qualitative papers from 17 studies that explored the psychosocial impact of bereavement and grieving the loss of a pet. The analysis revealed five themes: Their Relationship; Their Grief; Their Guilt; Their Supports; and Their Future. By looking beyond grief, health professionals can respond to bereaved pet owners the same way they would for other forms of human bereavement and provide the necessary support to transition bereavement.

Dogs Supporting Human Health and Well-Being: A Biopsychosocial Approach

Humans have long realized that dogs can be helpful, in a number of ways, to achieving important goals. This is evident from our earliest interactions involving the shared goal of avoiding predators and acquiring food, to our more recent inclusion of dogs in a variety of contexts including therapeutic and educational settings. This paper utilizes a longstanding theoretical framework- the biopsychosocial model- to contextualize the existing research on a broad spectrum of settings and populations in which dogs have been included as an adjunct or complementary therapy to improve some aspect of human health and well-being. A wide variety of evidence is considered within key topical areas including cognition, learning disorders, neurotypical and neurodiverse populations, mental and physical health, and disabilities. A dynamic version of the biopsychosocial model is used to organize and discuss the findings, to consider how possible mechanisms of action may impact overall human health and well-being, and to frame and guide future research questions and investigations.

Dog-human behavioral synchronization: family dogs synchronize their behavior with child family members

Research on dog social cognition has received widespread attention. However, the vast majority of this research has focused on dogs' relationships and responsiveness towards adult humans. While little research has considered dog-child interactions from a cognitive perspective, how dogs perceive and socially engage with children is critical to fully understand their interspecific social cognition. In several recent studies, dogs have been shown to exhibit behavioral synchrony, often associated with increased affiliation and social responsiveness, with their adult owners. In the current study, we asked if family dogs would also exhibit behavioral synchrony with child family members. Our findings demonstrated that dogs engaged in all three measured components of behavioral synchrony with their child partner-activity synchrony (p < 0.0001), proximity (p < 0.0001), and orientation (p = 0.0026)-at levels greater than would be expected by chance. The finding that family dogs synchronize their behavior with that of child family members may shed light on how dogs perceive familiar children. Aspects of pet dog responsiveness to human actions previously reported in studies with adult humans appear to generalize to cohabitant children in at least some cases. However, some differences between our study outcomes and those reported in the dog-adult human literature were also observed. Given the prevalence of families with both children and dogs, and the growing popularity of child-focused animal-assisted interventions, knowledge about how dogs respond to the behavior of human children may also help inform and improve safe and successful dog-child interactions.

Considering Family Dog Attachment Bonds: Do Dog-Parent Attachments Predict Dog-Child Attachment Outcomes in Animal-Assisted Interventions?

Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) have become more prevalent in recent years, with dog-assisted interventions among the most popular. The literature suggests that a variety of dog-human interventions have the potential for beneficial outcomes for human participants and owners, however, critical gaps in knowledge still exist. Research addressing intervention outcomes for dogs, and the impact of AAI on the dog-human bond, has lagged behind. Even less is known about how dogs perceive child partners in AAI settings. The current study, which involved AAI for youth with developmental disabilities and their family dog, aimed to determine if the dog's style of attachment to a primary adult caretaker in the home was predictive of dog-child attachment style pre-and post-intervention. Using a Secure Base Test (SBT), the attachment style of the family dog toward an adult owner/parent was evaluated, and the attachment style of the dog toward the participating child was assessed before and after the dog-assisted interventions. The dog's attachment style to the child was then compared to the dog-parent attachment style. The findings show that all dogs with a secure attachment to the child at the initial assessment also had a secure attachment to the parent. It was also demonstrated that AAI has the potential to change the attachment style between a family dog and child to a more secure attachment, and that the dog-parent attachment style is a significant predictor of which dogs were able to develop a secure attachment to the child over the course of the AAI.

Students’ Care for Dogs, Environmental Attitudes, and Behaviour

Does the act of caring for a dog have a substantial connection to the environmental values and behaviours of children? The scientific current literature contains little empirical research regarding the effect of pet ownership on environmental attitudes and behaviours in children. The Two Factor Model of Environmental Values (2-MEV) scale and the General Ecological Behaviour (GEB) scale were applied to measure environmental attitudes/values and ecological behaviours aligned with the Children’s Care for Dogs Questionnaire (CTDQ) to measure individual care for dogs. The subjects were Slovenian adolescents in primary education and lower secondary education. A clear relationship emerged: students that reported a better level of care for their pet dogs tended to engage in more environmentally responsible behaviours. Preservation and utilization attitudes had no significant influence on caring for a dog. Female students tended to report better care for dogs and practiced environmental behaviour more often. Younger students scored higher on the preservation values and practiced environmental behaviour more often. Overall, this study provides an evidence-based framework for educational initiatives that aim to include long-term care for animals. This study proposes a method with which educational programs could achieve the goal of fostering environmental behaviours.