The Perks of Pet Ownership? The Effects of Pet Ownership for Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Resumen

Pet ownership has often been lauded as a protective factor for well-being, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We expanded this question to consider how pet (i.e., species, number) and owner (i.e., pet relationship quality, personality, attachment orientations) characteristics affected the association between pet ownership and well-being in a pre-registered mixed method analysis of 767 people assessed three times in May 2020. In our qualitative analyses, pet owners listed both benefits and costs of pet ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our quantitative analyses, we found that pet ownership was not reliably associated with well-being. Further, this association largely did not depend on the number of pets owned, the species of pet(s) owned, the quality of the human-pet relationship, or the owner’s psychological characteristics. Our findings are consistent with a large body of research showing null associations of pet ownership on well-being (quantitatively) but positive reports of pet ownership (qualitatively).

Áreas y palabras clave

Cómo citar (APA 7)

Chopik, W. J., Oh, J., Weidmann, R., Weaver, J. R., Balzarini, R. N., Zoppolat, G., & Slatcher, R. B. (2023). The Perks of Pet Ownership? The Effects of Pet Ownership for Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231203417