Northrope Katherine, Ruby Matthew B, Howell Tiffani J
School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bendigo 3552, Australia.
School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne 3086, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Sep 26;14(19):2773. doi: 10.3390/ani14192773.
It is unclear how pet ownership is related to mental health, with some previous research suggesting pet owners have better mental health, while other research suggests they have worse mental health. Some researchers have suggested that it may be more useful to investigate the bond people feel with their pets and how this may impact mental health; however, this too has led to mixed results. This study examined how owners' attachment to their dogs was associated with mental health and how this compared to their attachment relationships with other humans in a sample of 607 dog owners. Our findings indicate that both strong and insecure attachments to dogs are linked to poorer mental health outcomes, as was having an insecure attachment style in their human relationships. The adverse impact of strong attachment to dogs on mental health was mediated by these owners having an anxious attachment style toward other people, which in turn was associated with poorer mental health. The relationship between a strong attachment to dogs and poorer mental health was also moderated by gender, with this relationship being significant in women but not significant for men. Together, these results suggest a possible risk to mental health for owners who form a strong attachment to their dogs to compensate for anxious attachments in human relationships.
目前尚不清楚养宠物与心理健康之间的关系，之前的一些研究表明宠物主人的心理健康状况更好，而其他研究则表明他们的心理健康状况更差。一些研究人员认为，调查人们对宠物的情感纽带以及这可能如何影响心理健康可能更有意义；然而，这也导致了不一致的结果。本研究在607名狗主人的样本中，考察了主人对狗的依恋与心理健康之间的关联，以及这与他们和其他人的依恋关系相比情况如何。我们的研究结果表明，对狗的强烈依恋和不安全依恋都与较差的心理健康结果有关，在人际关系中具有不安全依恋风格也是如此。对狗的强烈依恋对心理健康的不利影响是由这些主人对其他人具有焦虑依恋风格介导的，而这反过来又与较差的心理健康相关。对狗的强烈依恋与较差心理健康之间的关系也受到性别的调节，这种关系在女性中显著，而在男性中不显著。总之，这些结果表明，那些为了弥补人际关系中的焦虑依恋而对狗形成强烈依恋的主人，其心理健康可能存在风险。
