2023-12-23 15:38:32
Nothing compares to the joy of returning home and finding a loyal companion. The unconditional love of a petcan provide more than company. Pets can also decrease stress, improve heart health, and even help children with their emotional and social skills.
Research on human-animal interactions is still relatively new. Some studies have shown positive health effects, but the results were mixed. It has been shown that interaction with animals decreases cortisol levels (a stress-related hormone) and lowers blood pressure.
Other studies have found that animals can reduce loneliness, increase feelings of social support, and improve your mood. Animals can serve as a source of comfort and support. Therapy dogs are especially good at this. Sometimes they are taken to hospitals or nursing homes to help reduce patients’ stress and anxiety.
Dogs can also help in the classroom. One study found that dogs can help children with ADHD to focus your attention.
Pets can also reduce stress, improve heart health, and even help children with their emotional and social skills.
Animals can help you in other unexpected ways. A recent study showed that fish care was favorable for adolescents with diabetes to better manage their disease. The researchers had a group of teenagers with type 1 diabetes care for a pet fish twice a day by feeding it and monitoring water levels. The care routine also included changing the water in the tank every week. This was combined with reviewing the children’s blood glucose (blood sugar) records together with the parents. The researchers tracked how consistently these teens controlled their blood glucose. Compared to teenagers who were not given a fish to care for, those who were They were more disciplined when it comes to controlling your own blood glucose levels, which is essential for maintaining your health.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki have collected data on the personality traits of thousands of dogs, cats and their owners to explore the attachment between owner and pet. The data covers around 2,500 pet owners and 3,300 pets.
Relationships between humans and pets, like those between humans themselves, can be described by examining two dimensions of insecure attachment: anxious and avoidant. Individual differences can be observed between these two attachment styles in terms of respective needs for proximity and independence.
A pet owner with anxious attachment You have a greater need for proximity and are worried regarding losing your pet. On the contrary, a pet owner with avoidant attachment craves a high degree of independence and fears the loss of personal autonomy.
In addition to investigating the role of the owner’s personality in attachment style, this was the first time that researchers considered the personality traits of attachment objects, i.e., pets. The importance of mental well-being for both owners and pets was examined.
For the former, the researchers examined symptoms of anxiety and depression, stress, and life satisfaction. The mental well-being of dogs and cats was studied by exploring undesirable behavioral traits, which reflect similar phenomena to the challenges of human psychological well-being.
A recent study showed that fish care was favorable for adolescents with diabetes to better manage their disease
The study found that cat and dog owners with lower mental well-being scores were more anxiously attached to their pets. In dog owners, such scores were also associated with an avoidant attachment style.
The dogs’ poor “mental well-being”, that is, unwanted behavior, was associated with both attachment styles: aggression and ADHD-like behavior with owners with avoidant attachment, and fearful behavior with owners with anxious attachment. Owners with avoidant attachment may they do not offer enough security for your dog in threatening situations, which can lead to fear and aggressive behavior. These owners may also engage in fewer shared activities with their dog, which in turn is associated with impulsivity in dogs.
Furthermore, it is possible that the direction of causality is the opposite, that is, that unwanted behavior in a dog may contribute to insecure attachment, increasing the need for independence or proximity from the owner.
The personality traits of dog and cat owners and their pets were associated with both insecure attachment styles. Owner neuroticism, in particular, was associated with an anxious attachment style.
The personality trait of neuroticism is characterized by instability in the expression of emotions, reflecting insecurity, anxiety, and threat detection. This may explain the association, given that the attachment anxietyreflects sensitivity to experiencing negative emotions in the context of the relationship.
Furthermore, owners of more active cats and, on the other hand, owners of more conscientious cats were more anxious. Among dog owners, more neurotic, agreeable, and extroverted owners were less attached to their dogs. In general, dogs and cats that were more sociable with humans had fewer owners with avoidant attachment.
The attachment bond between owner and pet has a considerable impact on the life they share. Previous research has shown, for example, that attachment style affects the type of care the owner provides for their pet.
The attachment bond between owner and pet has a considerable impact on the life they share.
It is important to recognize that owning a pet while experiencing poor mental wellbeing may not necessarily meet expectations of improving it. On the other hand, the results suggest that interventions targeting dog behavioral problems might benefit from focusing not only on changing pet behavior but also taking into account factors of the owner’s attachment style.
Key data from the study:
1. The Helsinki study is the first to consider pet personality when examining attachment between owner and pet.
2. Lower mental well-being in owners is related to more anxious relationships with pets.
3. The behavior of the pet and the personality traits of the owner play an important role in the type of attachment bond that is formed.
Finally, share this reflection of Aldous Husley: “All men are gods to their dog. That’s why there are people who love their dogs more than men.”
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