A recent paper published by researchers at the Telethon Centre for Child Health Research in Perth identified that owning pets supports children's social and emotional development, and that this benefit is particularly evident in children who do not have siblings.
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In the study, dog ownership included family dog walking at least once a week, active play with the family dog at least three times a week.
Pet ownership has long been known to be good for us. Adult pet owners tend to be more physically active, have healthier hearts and a greater sense of community. Children pet owners tend to be more physically active and to have less allergies.
Being more physically active is important as other research indicates that less than a third of Australian children between 2 and 5 years of age reach the internationally recommended activity levels of at least 3 hours pf physical activity a day.
Child pet owners also feel better about themselves, are more autonomous and trusting and are more likely to be better at sharing, helping others and so-operating with others. They are also more likely to demonstrate empathy and to be less lonely.
It is thought that pets provide something like a social buffer for children so that when they are stressed they feel there is another being who supports them.
It is thought that pets provide something like a social buffer for children so that when they are stressed they feel there is another being who supports them.
When children have to care for pets they learn about empathy, the importance of being responsible for the wellbeing of another being. Pets also provide opportunities for children to learn about death.
The researchers used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian children and found that 64% of babies under 9 months of age lived in a home where there was a pet: 45% of the pets were dogs, 23% were cats and the remainder were a range of different pets. In the kindergarten cohort (children 4-5 years old) 68% had a pet in the home and again dogs were the most popular pet: 43% had dogs, and 27% had cats.
In the 6-7 age group, 75% of children's homes had pets: 51% dogs and 22% cats. Families where there were younger siblings tended not to have a pet, whereas pet ownership was highest in families where there were no other siblings.
Children in the study underwent a battery of developmental tests. These demonstrated that pet ownership (of any kind of pet) decreased the chances of children having an abnormal prosocial behaviour score compared to children who did not own a pet.
Owning a cat was associated with an increased chance of having an abnormal hyperactivity score (shorter attention span and less ability to complete tasks) but a decreased chance of having an abnormal emotional development score.
Owning a dog was found to be associated with a decreased risk of a poor social development score. Children who had a pet cat were likely to have a lower score on the peer problems scale compared to non-pet owning children.
Children who had a pet dog had better scores on the prosocial development scale compared to children who did not own a pet.
It is not clear from the research if owning a pet causes these differences in children's development or if parents are more likely to select particular types of pets depending on their children's existing behaviour.
For example, does owning a cat contribute to shortening children's concentration spans, or are parents of children who do not concentrate well more likely to chose a cat as a pet?
Certainly there is evidence from other research that owning a pet can help calm children who are hyperactive so the results of the study do tend to raise as many questions as they answer.
However the researchers concluded that pet ownership "may protect children in general from developing peer relationship problems, emotional symptoms, and deficits in prosocial behaviours.
Given the positive effects of pets on child development and the high proportion of families who have pets, it is possible that pets are an important mechanism to take into account when assessing child development and school readiness" (Christian, Mitrou, Cunneen and Zubrick, 2020, p. 205).
