3-204 - Do Pet Dogs Provide Emotional or Physiological Health Benefits for Children?

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Over 40% of homes with children also have a pet dog. Dog ownership is believed to provide children a key social and emotional coping resource and improve health outcomes. However, there is a dearth of scientific research to either support or refute these claims. With the pervasiveness of animals in children’s lives, and the increased use of therapy animals with children, rigorously designed studies are needed to understand the impact of animals on the lives of children.

Symposium presenters are members of the Human-Animal Interaction Research Consortium, a consortium established to study the association between pet ownership/caregiving and interaction with animals on children’s physical and mental health (NICHD, 2012). Paper 1 shows that children’s self-reported attachments to their pet dog are associated with increased empathy, prosocial behavior, and happiness. Paper 2 demonstrates that dog ownership is associated with reduced anxiety, although child-dog relationships do not predict obesity-related outcomes. The third and fourth papers test children’s emotional and physiological responses to a controlled laboratory stressor. Paper 3 indicates that presence of a pet dog modestly increases positive affect, although autonomic responses to stress are unaffected. In a similar experimental design, paper 4 shows that pet presence reduces children’s perceived stress during a laboratory stressor, without buffering cortisol responses. The findings suggest that among typically-developing children, relationships with pet dogs have socioemotional benefits including increased happiness, prosocial behavior, and empathy and reduced anxiety. Moreover, pet dog presence increases positive affect and reduces perceived stress under stressful conditions in a controlled laboratory environment.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Darlene A Kertes, University of Florida

Individual Presentations

• Attachment to Dogs, Attachment to Mothers, and Youth Socioemotional Outcomes - Presenting Author: Kristen Jacobson, University of Chicago

• How Might Pet Dogs Affect Child Mental and Physical Health? - Presenting Author: Anne Gadomski, Columbia University; Melissa B. Scribani, Bassett Medical Center; Nicole Krupa, Bassett Medical Center; Paul Jenkins, Bassett Medical Center; Zsolt Nagykaldi, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Ardis L. Olson, Dartmouth Medical School

• Pet Dogs: Does Their Presence Mitigate Preadolescents’ Emotional Responses to a Social Stressor? - Presenting Author: Kathryn A Kerns, Kent State University; Kaela Stuart, Kent State University; Karin G. Coifman, Kent State University; Manfred Van Dulmen, Kent State Univ; Amanda Jo Koehn, Kent State University

• Effect of Pet Dogs on Children’s Perceived Stress and Cortisol Stress Responses - Presenting Author: Darlene A Kertes, University of Florida; Jingwen Liu, University of Florida; Nathan Hall, University of Florida; Natalie Aviva Hadad, University of Florida; Clive D. L. Wynne, Arizona State University