Effects of Pet Ownership on the Well

							Effects of Pet Ownership on the Well-Being of Adolescents with Few Familial Resources
N.M. Bodmer, Institute of Psychology, University of Berne, 3000 Beme 9, Switzerland. 1995.
(Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Human-Animal Interactions, Animals,
Health and Quality of Life, September 6-9, 1995, Geneva, Switzerland).

This study investigates the relationship between pet-ownership and subjective well-being of
adolescents who report few familial resources. The sample comprises 1219 Swiss adolescents
aged between 10 to 16 years (girls and boys are equally distributed). 592 adolescents (56%) are
pet-owners. The variables taken into account in our analyses are: Pet-ownership (i.e., having
played with their own pet during the last week), personal characteristics of the adolescents (i.e.,
gender, age, manifest anxiety), familial resources (i.e., family climate, daily presence of family
members, amount of leisure time spent with family members, and socio economical status of the
family estimated by the adolescents), and the outcome variable, subjective well-being.

Multivariate analyses of variance with pet-ownership as the independent variable were used to
show in which respects pet-owners differ from other adolescents. Pet-owners report a higher
level of subjective well-being (p <.05), more familial resources (p <.001), but not less manifest
anxiety than adolescents who do not have a pet at home. Both groups of adolescents do not differ
in the self-estimated socio-economical status, indicating that a higher living standard does not
explain the positive relationships. Finally, a three factorial multivariate analyses of variance with
manifest anxiety, family resources (both median-split and controlled for age and gender), and
pet-ownership, on the dependent variable well-being was calculated. The results show that pet-
ownership, though directly related to higher levels of well-being and more familial resources,
cannot serve as a buffer for adolescents reporting less familial resources (i.e. the interactions
were not significant). These results stem from the first wave of a longitudinal study. The
longitudinal study will provide more information about potential relationships between pet-
ownership and adolescent's well-being, and provide a clearer picture of the animal-adolescent-
relationship in case of loss of familial resources.