Ellis Annalyse, Loughnan Steve, Hawkins Roxanne D, Stanton Sarah C E
Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AD, UK.
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2024 May 29;14(11):1606. doi: 10.3390/ani14111606.
Although many companion animal (or "pet") owners report that their relationships with their pets are important, we know little about how animal ownership duration and animal life stage are related to relationship quality. In a sample of 1303 dog and cat owners, the present research explored the associations between relationship duration, pet life stage (puppy/kitten, young adult, mature adult, and senior), and four markers of relationship quality: pet-related self-expansion, perceived pet responsiveness, perceived pet insensitivity, and human-animal bond. We found that relationship duration was negatively and linearly associated with self-expansion for both dog and cat owners. Results comparing relationship quality markers across pet life stages revealed that for both dog and cat owners, self-expansion was higher for owners of younger animals compared to owners of older animals. There were no significant effects for perceived pet responsiveness, perceived pet insensitivity, or human-animal bond based on relationship duration or animal life stage. These findings indicate that the duration of the relationship with one's pet and animal life stage have implications for how much people feel a pet helps them grow, whereas other markers of human-pet relationship quality likely vary based on other experiences.
尽管许多伴侣动物（或“宠物”）主人表示他们与宠物的关系很重要，但我们对养宠时长和动物生命阶段如何与关系质量相关知之甚少。在一个由1303名狗主人和猫主人组成的样本中，本研究探讨了养宠时长、宠物生命阶段（幼犬/幼猫、青年、成年、老年）与关系质量的四个指标之间的关联：与宠物相关的自我扩展、感知到的宠物反应性、感知到的宠物不敏感以及人宠关系。我们发现，养宠时长与狗主人和猫主人的自我扩展均呈负向线性相关。比较不同宠物生命阶段关系质量指标的结果显示，对于狗主人和猫主人来说，与老年动物的主人相比，幼年动物的主人自我扩展程度更高。基于养宠时长或动物生命阶段，在感知到的宠物反应性、感知到的宠物不敏感或人宠关系方面没有显著影响。这些发现表明，与宠物的关系时长和动物生命阶段对人们感觉宠物在多大程度上帮助他们成长有影响，而人宠关系质量的其他指标可能因其他经历而有所不同。
