Source: The Conversation – France – By Tiphaine Blanchard, enseignante en gériatrie et nutrition vétérinaire, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse; Inrae
Pets aren’t just mere companions, they play an active role in improving their owners’ wellbeing. But what does this connection tell us about our lifestyles? A recent study by the National Veterinary School of Toulouse has gauged how attached French pet owners are to their cats and dogs.
Animals – our best mental health allies
The benefits of an animal’s presence on human health are common knowledge. Many studies associate them with cardiovascular risk reduction and show how they can help reduce stress, especially among people who have a strong emotional bond with their pet.
Dog owners, for example, walk more, have a more active social life, and are less likely to experience depression. Among the elderly, studies suggest that the presence of an animal helps to preserve cognitive abilities, such as memory, as well as morale, while in children it promotes learning empathy and responsibilities.
This link is not only behavioural: it also affects our emotional needs. In a society marked by loneliness, anxiety and aging of the population, a dog or a cat sometimes becomes a real psychological support, capable of creating a sense of stability and usefulness in everyday life.
However, this relationship, which although beneficial in many cases, can also become a source of emotional distress. Some people develop an anxious attachment to their pet, characterised by excessive worry at the thought of separation or when the animal falls ill.
In elderly people, even without acute attachment anxiety, forced separation from their pet due to a hospital stay or admission to a nursing home often represents real trauma, as the animal is part of their emotional equilibrium and daily life.
The human-animal relationship as a therapeutic tool
The positive effects of the human-animal bond have now been put to good use in several hospitals and medical welfare programs.
The presence of animals in nursing homes can promote exchanges, rekindle memories, and temporarily help to break the feeling of loneliness among residents. Offering animal mediation in psychotherapy sessions for adolescents is also beneficial. Finally, in some paediatric units, particularly in oncology, specially trained animals accompany patients during care to reduce anxiety and improve wellbeing over the duration of the hospital stay.
More recently, several French police stations introduced kittens to appease victims of violence, an approach inspired by measures already implemented in other parts of the world.
For example, in the United States, specially trained dogs are being brought into some police stations and courtrooms to support victims during hearings. To date, there is no scientific data evaluating their impact in this specific context, but the testimonies are positive. Furthermore, benefits have been reported among professionals: a study with Canadian police officers showed that the presence of dogs in their work environment was perceived to reduce stress and improve wellbeing.
This theme deserves to be explored by dedicated research work to study how contact with an animal helps restore a sense of security post-trauma.
These initiatives, which are becoming more and more widespread, are all based on the same idea: to reinforce human health by building on the relationship with animals. Understanding the complex links between wellbeing, dependency and vulnerability requires a reliable survey instrument, which hadn’t been the case in France until recently.
A first step on the ladder to understanding pet attachment
To gain a better understanding of the pet/owner relationship, the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) makes it possible to quantify emotional attachment between a pet owner and their pet across 23 topics (for example “My pet knows when I am feeling bad”). Until very recently France didn’t have an assessment method for pet attachment.
Nearly 1,900 French dog and cat owners responded to the survey.
How is pet attachment evaluated?
The LAPS scale assigns an attachment score of 0 to 69 (a high score reflects a stronger attachment of an owner to their animal).
In France, dog owners obtained a median score of 58.5 compared to 52 for cats, which is higher than in England, Denmark, or Austria!
Marked differences depending on owners’ profiles
The study highlights several factors influencing the achievement score:
-
Women score higher than men, a result also observed in other countries.
-
People living without children also have a higher score, as their animals can sometimes play the role of substitute family figures.
-
Dog owners have a higher score than cat owners, perhaps due to more active interaction.
-
People with a higher level of education score lower, perhaps because they tend to express their emotional attachment less.
These trends reflect deep social realities. In a society where loneliness is increasing, families are being reconstituted and remote work is becoming more widespread, animals play a role that’s increasingly affective. They soothe, structure daily life and fill a need for connection that human relationships don’t always satisfy.
When our dogs and cats become our attachment figures
In psychology, attachment theory describes our fundamental need for security and reassurance with an “attachment figure”, often a parent, partner, or… an animal.
Dogs, which are more demonstrative, offer emotional interaction similar to children: they solicit, provoke, and express joy. Cats, which are more independent, sometimes require a more “projective” form of attachment, where the owner interprets their signs of affection.
These differences explain why dogs get higher attachment scores: they actively respond to our human need for connection and reciprocity. But among all the owners, attachment remains something that is real.
What about the impact of pets’ health on their owner’s health?
The French version of the LAPS scale is already being used for other research in France.
One of the research projects is focusing on the impact of dog osteoarthritis on the daily life of its owners. When an animal suffers, it is often the whole household that bears the consequences. People in France can participate in this new study by completing an online questionnaire.
The questionnaire is open to all dog owners in France, whether or not they are affected by osteoarthritis, in order to improve understanding of how dogs’ health affects their owners’ health, and to improve care for dogs and their families.
A weekly e-mail in English featuring expertise from scholars and researchers. It provides an introduction to the diversity of research coming out of the continent and considers some of the key issues facing European countries. Get the newsletter!
Tiphaine Blanchard ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.
– ref. The truth about cats and dogs and the links between pet attachment and mental health – https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-cats-and-dogs-and-the-links-between-pet-attachment-and-mental-health-281046