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Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment

Restrictions, social isolation, and uncertainty related to the global COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the ways that parents and children maintain family routines, health, and wellbeing. Companion animals (pets) can be a critical source of comfort during traumatic experiences, although changes to fa...

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Autores principales: Bennetts, Shannon K., Crawford, Sharinne B., Howell, Tiffani J., Burgemeister, Fiona, Chamberlain, Catherine, Burke, Kylie, Nicholson, Jan M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9312405/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35877660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271687
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author Bennetts, Shannon K.
Crawford, Sharinne B.
Howell, Tiffani J.
Burgemeister, Fiona
Chamberlain, Catherine
Burke, Kylie
Nicholson, Jan M.
author_facet Bennetts, Shannon K.
Crawford, Sharinne B.
Howell, Tiffani J.
Burgemeister, Fiona
Chamberlain, Catherine
Burke, Kylie
Nicholson, Jan M.
author_sort Bennetts, Shannon K.
collection PubMed
description Restrictions, social isolation, and uncertainty related to the global COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the ways that parents and children maintain family routines, health, and wellbeing. Companion animals (pets) can be a critical source of comfort during traumatic experiences, although changes to family routines, such as those caused by COVID-19, can also bring about challenges like managing undesirable pet behaviours or pet-human interactions. We aimed to examine the relationship between pet attachment and mental health for both parents and their children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. A total of 1,034 parents living with a child under 18 years and a cat or dog completed an online cross-sectional survey between July and October 2020. Path analysis using multivariate linear regression was conducted to examine associations between objective COVID-19 impacts, subjective worry about COVID-19, human-pet attachment, and mental health. After adjusting for core demographic factors, stronger pet-child attachment was associated with greater child anxiety (parent-reported, p < .001). Parent-pet attachment was not associated with self-reported psychological distress (p = .42), however, parents who reported a strong emotional closeness with their pet reported greater psychological distress (p = .002). Findings highlight the role of pets during times of change and uncertainty. It is possible that families are turning to animals as a source of comfort, during a time when traditional social supports are less accessible. Alternatively, strong pet attachment is likely to reflect high levels of empathy, which might increase vulnerability to psychological distress. Longitudinal evidence is required to delineate the mechanisms underpinning pet attachment and mental health.
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spelling pubmed-93124052022-07-26 Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment Bennetts, Shannon K. Crawford, Sharinne B. Howell, Tiffani J. Burgemeister, Fiona Chamberlain, Catherine Burke, Kylie Nicholson, Jan M. PLoS One Research Article Restrictions, social isolation, and uncertainty related to the global COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the ways that parents and children maintain family routines, health, and wellbeing. Companion animals (pets) can be a critical source of comfort during traumatic experiences, although changes to family routines, such as those caused by COVID-19, can also bring about challenges like managing undesirable pet behaviours or pet-human interactions. We aimed to examine the relationship between pet attachment and mental health for both parents and their children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. A total of 1,034 parents living with a child under 18 years and a cat or dog completed an online cross-sectional survey between July and October 2020. Path analysis using multivariate linear regression was conducted to examine associations between objective COVID-19 impacts, subjective worry about COVID-19, human-pet attachment, and mental health. After adjusting for core demographic factors, stronger pet-child attachment was associated with greater child anxiety (parent-reported, p < .001). Parent-pet attachment was not associated with self-reported psychological distress (p = .42), however, parents who reported a strong emotional closeness with their pet reported greater psychological distress (p = .002). Findings highlight the role of pets during times of change and uncertainty. It is possible that families are turning to animals as a source of comfort, during a time when traditional social supports are less accessible. Alternatively, strong pet attachment is likely to reflect high levels of empathy, which might increase vulnerability to psychological distress. Longitudinal evidence is required to delineate the mechanisms underpinning pet attachment and mental health. Public Library of Science 2022-07-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9312405/ /pubmed/35877660 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271687 Text en © 2022 Bennetts et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bennetts, Shannon K.
Crawford, Sharinne B.
Howell, Tiffani J.
Burgemeister, Fiona
Chamberlain, Catherine
Burke, Kylie
Nicholson, Jan M.
Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment
title Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment
title_full Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment
title_fullStr Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment
title_full_unstemmed Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment
title_short Parent and child mental health during COVID-19 in Australia: The role of pet attachment
title_sort parent and child mental health during covid-19 in australia: the role of pet attachment
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9312405/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35877660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271687
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