The Role of Pets in Enhancing Human Well-being: Effects on Child Development. Nienke Endenburg and Ben Baarda. Reprinted from The Waltham Book of Human-Animal Interactions: Benefits and Responsibilities. Courtesy of Waltham.

Introduction

Parents often obtain a pet because they consider them to be good for their children. These parents will state that their children become more responsible, are more sociable and develop character.26 However, the relationship between humans and animals and especially the influence of pets on children is a relatively new area for scientific research. One of the first to investigate this area was the American child psychologist Boris Levinson.33 Levinson worked with a boy who had many problems associated with social contact. On one occasion Levinson happened to have his dog with him in the office. The dog was not usually permitted into the office when clients were expected, but on this day the boy arrived earlier than expected for his appointment. The boy began to interact with the dog and to Levinson's surprise spoke to the dog; Levinson had not been able to provoke speech during the previous month. This was the beginning of his research, which has inspired many others to investigate this area.

Early studies were mainly case studies, later followed by questionnaire, survey and interview approaches. Although a considerable number of interesting studies have since been reported, the mechanisms that lie behind the results obtained remain unclear.

One of the problems is that it is difficult to conduct experimental research in this area. For example it is not possible to force people to take a pet while others are told that they cannot own one. It is therefore difficult to say anything about causal relationships. Sometimes in children's homes it is possible to give an animal to certain groups, while other similar groups do not get one, but this kind of study is rare and it is difficult to generalize these data to children living with their families under 'normal' circumstances. To overcome the problem of causality, longitudinal studies can be conducted but these are time consuming and expensive.26

Despite these difficulties, some research has been carried out on the question of whether or not pets have an influence on the development of children. Melson and Peet40 found that being attached to a pet is related to positive emotional functioning. Bergesen10 affirmed this and wrote that positive self-esteem of children is enhanced by owning a pet. According to Poresky and Hendrix,46 it is not only social emotional development, but also cognitive development that can be enhanced by owning pets. In these and other studies it was possible to measure relationships and to demonstrate that there were some effects, yet the mechanisms that lie behind these effects did not attract much attention. Theoretical implications to be drawn from these investigations could provide more insight into the mechanisms which cause these effects.

During the last decade of developmental psychology there has been more attention paid to why some children fail to develop properly under severe circumstances while others develop well. Several models have evolved to take account of the variables that influence the development of children.1, 9, 50-52 Although these models have much in common, they concentrate on different aspects of development and the variables that influence that development. This review gives an explanatory outline of child development and the variables that influence that development. The research conducted on the influence of pets on the development of children will be reviewed with reference to Belsky's model.9

The Development of Children

Child development is an ongoing process. Children have to master tasks concerning cognitive development, as well as social and emotional development. There are several variables influencing this development. In Belsky's model9 three domains of variables are identified: the characteristics of the child, personal psychological resources of the parents and contextual sources of stress and support. These domains interact with each other and will determine how the child will develop. A differentiation can be made between 'child characteristics' and 'child development'. In the domain of personal psychological resources of the parents the 'personality', the 'work', the 'marital relations' and the 'parenting style' are important factors and in the domain of contextual sources of stress and support 'social network' and 'peer group' and also 'housing conditions', can be important.

A child's characteristics include genetically determined factors such as temperament and intelligence. These factors influence the development of the child, but as they are relatively stable and cannot be influenced to a great extent by other variables such as parenting, they will not be discussed further.

Child development consists of both social-emotional development and cognitive development. Social emotional development can be measured by self-esteem and a positive social orientation of the child, but social skills and a sense of social or moral responsibility can also contribute to the building of self-esteem. The level of cognitive development can be examined, when children learn to read, write and are able to do mathematics. The development of the child is also influenced by the social network of that child. For instance if the child has no friends their social development will be different from a child who has many friends. Cochran and Brassard20 found that the support provided by social networks can enhance self-esteem. There is considerable evidence that effective social support contributes to mental health and some evidence that it may provide a buffering, protective function against psychosocial stress.21, 44

Parents are very important in the life of a child, therefore parenting will influence the development of that child. Parental use of induction or reasoning, consistent discipline and expression of warmth have been found to relate positively to self-esteem and intellectual achievement during the school-age years.9 Parents should also be sensitive to the needs of their children. The model of parental functioning assumes that there is a link between parents' psychological well-being and their parental functioning that can be traced back to the parents' own experiences while growing up. The developmental history of the parents will thus influence their personality. Other factors such as marital relations also influence parenting. It has been found that marital is the most important form of support and Belsky8 found that a positive marital relationship is a major supporting factor in competent parenting. This model can be extended by adding family relations and cohesion, in cases where family members are able to rely on each other and feel that accepted stressful experiences can be resolved together.

Apart from the beneficial effect of social support on the development of children, social networks can also have a beneficial influence on parenting. One of the reasons social networks are important is that they provide emotional support. This support can be defined as the love and interpersonal acceptance an individual receives from others, either through explicit statements to that effect or as a result of considerate actions,9 so that people feel cared for and accepted.

The work status of the parents is the last variable included in Belsky's model that can influence parenting. Unemployment can introduce a level of stress into the family and will also influence the financial status.3 If both parents work, the children may have other forms of daytime care, although there is no evidence that this has a significant negative or positive influence on their development.31

Having briefly discussed this model, it is important to remember that there will be other variables influencing the development of the child which are not mentioned in this model. However, we consider this model to be the most useful framework for examining the potential influence of pets on the development of children. It is also important to realize that the aforementioned variables are not independent but influence each other. For instance, parenting influences the social-emotional development of the child but this in turn influences parenting. Thus, the development of children is a dynamic process whose key feature lies in the process, not in the variable. There is a danger that researchers may concentrate on the variables rather than on the mechanisms involved.55 For pragmatic reasons, however, only the different variables in this relationship will be examined in this review.

Direct Influences of Pets on the Development of Children

Child development can be separated into social emotional and cognitive development. First the direct influences will be discussed, starting with social emotional development.

Social-Emotional Development

There is scientific evidence that self-esteem is an important aspect of the social emotional development of children.30, 50 If there are pets in the house, parents and children frequently share in taking care of the pet, which suggests that youngsters learn at an early age how to care for and nurture a dependent animal.29 For younger children, involvement, positive reinforcement and acceptance are important for building self-esteem. Accomplishing tasks appropriate to their age, when taking care of the pet with their parents, makes a child feel more competent. However, this process relies on parents knowing which tasks are appropriate. A 3-year-old cannot walk a dog, but can help with giving a dog water. If parents are aware of this fact, children receive positive reinforcement from their parents when they take care of an animal in a responsible way. As the child grows older the allocation of responsibility for pet-care management changes in a child centered family. Pre-school children enjoy imitating their parent's work, whereas the school-age child can manage some tasks alone and the teenager independently can assume certain responsibilities. Bergesen10 found that children's self-esteem scores increased significantly over a nine month period of keeping pets in their school class room. In particular, it was children with originally low self-esteem scores who showed the greatest improvements. Covert et al.24 found that early adolescent pet owners had higher self-esteem scores than non-pet owners. Davis25 found a significant positive association between pre-adolescents' affective relationships with the family dog and their perceived self-concept.

Another aspect of social-emotional development is empathy, the child's ability to understand how someone else feels. According to Paul45 it is possible that by interacting with pets that are totally dependent on the owner, children learn to understand the feelings and needs of animals and those of fellow human beings from an early age. Bryant14 found that children who owned pets felt more empathy towards other people. Poresky and Hendrix47 also found that 3-6-year-old pet-owning children achieved higher empathy scores than their non-pet-owning counterparts. Ascione2 found that an animal-based humane education program in elementary school was related to higher empathy scores amongst fourth graders (although not amongst first, second and fifth graders). Poresky and Hendrix48 claim that it is not owning pets per se, but particularly the compassion children feel towards pets, that is related to their empathy towards humans.

Pets also have been cited as providing important 'social' support.14, 27, 32 Bachman3 found that children regularly nominated pets when asked who they would go to with a problem. Brickel13 reports that companion animals can provide emotional support. Levinson35 believed that this sort of emotional support could be important for the healthy psychological development of all children. The 'social' support given by pets has some advantages compared to the social support given by humans. Pets can make people feel unconditionally accepted, whereas fellow humans will judge and may criticize. Ross4 stated that social support given by other humans can be threatening.

Enduring affection is a significant source of the potential benefit and pleasure that pets can bring to children. Children sense that pets will love and accept them unconditionally (even when the child gets angry or performs poorly at school16) and provide a source of nonjudgemental affection.5 This does not mean that pets can replace humans. They can give emotional support, but they cannot give instrumental support, such as advice, or help with homework.

Cognitive Development

Poresky et a1.49 associated improved cognitive development with the bond between children and pets. It has been suggested that pet ownership might facilitate language acquisition and enhance verbal skills in children.22, 56 This would occur as a result of the pet functioning both as a patient recipient of the young child's babble and as an attractive verbal stimulus, eliciting communication from the child in the form of praise, orders, encouragement and punishment. However no real evidence has yet been offered to support these hypotheses.46 More research is needed to find out whether pets could have any influence on the cognitive development.

This review of the influence of pets on the development of children shows that not all studies give the same results. This may be due to the fact that not every child likes taking care of an animal, some may even be afraid. Poresky et al.49 studied the attachment between the child and the pet. They found that attachment between child and pet was a more reliable measure than the owning of a pet per se. Melson39 also found that attachment to pets was positively related to the self-esteem of children in kindergarten; but there was no relationship between attachment to pets and self-esteem of second (mean age 8.14 years) and fifth (mean age 12.01 years) graders. Attachment might seem to be a mediating variable between the pet and the development of the child.

Indirect Influences of Pets on the Development of Children

Parenting

Parents play an important role in pet selection since it is the attitudes of parents which determine whether there will be a pet in the household and the type of pet owned. Studies have shown that people who owned a pet in childhood are significantly more likely to own a pet as an adult.26,45,57 People who had experience of a pet during childhood have a more positive attitude towards pets45 and a better understanding of the non-verbal signals of such a pet.6 Pet ownership occurs significantly more often in families with school-aged children and adolescents than in families without children.26, 42

Many parents admit that pets can be valuable tools with which to educate children about life events.37, 56 Two such situations where parental reactions probably influence children is when an animal is born or when it dies. Children who have pets in the family will probably experience the death of an animal. This is a painful experience and the way in which their parents and others near to them deal with the situation will have an influence on how children cope with death in general throughout their lives. It is important for parents to discuss their feelings of sadness openly and to share the associated feelings with the child. Parents have to show that it is all right to have such feelings. Learning to cope with sad feelings, for instance when a pet dies or is euthanized, is important and parents have to help their children with it. The veterinarian can also play an important role here. To explain what happens when a pet is euthanized in a way children can understand, will help the child with the grieving process.

At the other end of an animal's life is birth. For most children the birth of animals is an exciting moment that can give parents the opportunity to explain how life begins and can form part of sex education.

Marital and Family Relations

Family influences are associated with both pet ownership/bonding and child development. Paul45 found significant results suggesting that dog ownership was associated with greater family cohesion. When a pet has been acquired there is an initial increase in the frequency of children's social interactions, at least within their own home. Cain18 found that of families surveyed in the USA, 52% reported experiencing an increase in the time the family spent together after they acquired their pets. As many as 70% reported an increase in family happiness and fun subsequent to pet acquisition. These subjective data have limitations, but suggest that people believe, or at least would like to believe, that their pets enhance family cohesion and increase the time spent with each other. Thus, people believe that pets act as social facilitators within the family.

Some research has reported that pets can play a particularly important role in the lives of children who have inadequate or destructive family and social environments.11, 34, 53 However, Bryant and Whorley17 found that children's use of their pets for emotional support was most clearly related to a good experience of such support from their parents. Poresky and Hendrix47 also found that children with pets and a better home environment showed higher age-adjusted child development scores.47

Sibling status and number are also significantly related to childhood pet ownership. There is a tendency for children with fewer siblings and those with no younger siblings in particular, to have more pets of their own and to appear to be more pet-oriented.15, 38, 45 Perhaps single and youngest children use animals to express feelings and perform behavior that other children are able to direct towards their younger sisters or brothers.

Social Networks Influencing the Development of Children

Many people seem to experience social support in their interactions with animals or with other people through companion animals. Mugford and M'Comisky43 used the term social lubricant to describe the phenomenon where the presence of animals increased social contacts between people. This effect has been noted by a number of others.23, 35,36, 41,56 Guttman et al.23 suggested that the attractiveness of a child's pet to other children may, as a secondary effect, enhance the attractiveness of the child as a friend or playmate. MacDonald37 found that 84% of the 31 10-year-olds he interviewed reported that social contacts occurred with other children and adults while they exercised their dogs. Pet owning children have also been found to be significantly more popular with their classmates.23 Other results suggest that adolescent pet-owners are significantly more lonely than adolescent non-owners.7 However, it is possible that people who feel lonely obtain a pet to remedy the situation and so the issue of cause and effect remains unclear. Longitudinal studies are required to shed more light on the causal relationship and whether other variables play a mediating role.

It may not be ownership as such, but attachment to the pet that is important. Melson39 has shown that involvement with a pet, and not simply pet ownership is related to children's involvement in non-school social activities. Further research is required to show whether or not attachment and involvement are the same concepts in this context.

Social Networks Influencing Parenting

Research has demonstrated that social support is positively related to good parental functioning. This is not surprising since social support and general well-being have been repeatedly linked. In addition to the direct social support provided by pets, they can also provide an indirect support by serving as a catalyst for social contacts with other persons for both children and parents.23, 35, 36, 41, 56

Parental Employment Status

Pets may play an important role when both parents are employed. It can be suggested that pets provide a constant in children's lives and that they are predictably responsive e.g. welcoming the children when they come home. Unfortunately, no research has been conducted in this area. However, the influence of pets on child development and parenting and whether this is dependent on the parents' employment status ought to be investigated.

Can Pets Enhance the Development of Children?

The aim of this review was to set out the way in which pets could influence the development of children. Our approach was to place published research data in a theoretical framework. It becomes clear that pets can have positive influences on certain aspects of child development. However, as stated earlier, causal relationships are difficult to prove and more attention must be paid to the mechanisms behind these influences.

Research to date has not been equally distributed in the different areas of development. Areas that have been neglected include whether pets have a direct influence on the cognitive development of children, or whether parents who allow pets in their family manifest a different parental style to those who do not.

The employment status of the parents should also be taken into account when the influence of pets on the development of children is studied. It is possible that pets play different roles when both, one, or neither parent is employed.

It would be interesting to see whether children and parents who own animals have better social networks than people without animals. Both the number and the quality of contacts should be considered, since it is possible that while people with pets may have more surface contacts, the quality of social support they enjoy does not differ from people without animals.

When we talk about the development of children we also have to bear in mind both the factors that facilitate the development (protective factors) and the factors that can be a threat to this development (risk factors). From this review it appears that pets can act as protective factors, but the research reported did not consider potential negative aspects. For instance, it is possible that there may be more stress in a family where no one is willing to take care of the animal. Serpell58 on the other hand, suggested that benefits and problems with pets and children can signal existing or impending crises within families. Therefore some consideration should be given to the potential costs of owning pets, in order to define those situations where the benefits are greater than perceived costs.

This review of the influence of pets on the development of children has made a preliminary attempt to place the research results into a theoretical framework. It can however be nothing more than a beginning. If we want to understand the mechanisms that lie behind these results we need research guided by theoretical frameworks in order to test developmental models and the roles of pets within them. The consequence of these ideas is that research must focus on all aspects of development and the pet child relationship. Such data is important for parents, teachers and professionals working in mental and physical health care.

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