Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Although children view pets (i.e.companion animals) as family members, child-pet relationships are rarely studied alongside other family relationships.In a socially diverse sample of 77 British families with pre-adolescent children (M age ¼ 12.14 years, SD ¼ 0.29 years), we examine how the quality of children's relationships with their pets and siblings vary in the context of adversity, and controlling for parent-child relationship quality, predict their behavioral adjustment.Children reported on the quality of their relationships and mothers rated child adjustment.Mother, child, and researcher ratings were combined to construct a multi-informant index of adversity.Child-pet positivity differed by adversity level for girls (but not boys) and, in low adversity contexts, was associated with greater concurrent prosocial behavior.Sibling positivity was unrelated to adversity, but had a buffering effect, in that adversity only predicted increases in problem behaviors over 12 months for those with low sibling positivity.
Source: Applied Developmental Science
Institutions: University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4392770103