It is said that having a pet can help children with anxiety, depression, and behavioural problems. (Photo: Getty/Thinkstock)
It is no secret that children love pets; they crave the love and affection that comes with spending time with a pupper or a kitten. It can also be emotionally gratifying and mentally stimulating for a child to spend time with an animal.
Neha Jain, an author at Merlinwand — an online publishing platform offering personalised books for kids to turn them into their own heroes — says while more couples are taking the one-child-per-family route, having a pet at home can be incredibly beneficial for the child, as interacting with pets can inculcate empathy, trust, responsibility, and understanding in them.
“Research published in 2017 in the Anthrozoos journal — by the RAND Corporation — suggested that children growing up with pets have better health, fewer behavioural and learning problems, are more obedient and physically active and demonstrate lesser mood fluctuations,” she says.
Jain adds that having a close emotional bond with a pet can greatly benefit children, but it is essential to bear in mind that there are risks involved in terms of bites, allergies, or even jealousy. “Children should be involved in taking care of them, too. Adequate care and time are necessary to understand and provide for the pet’s requirements,” she states.
Jain goes on to list some benefits that kids enjoy when they grow up in families that have pets; read on.
1. Facilitating attachment:
According to Jain, children demonstrate attachment behaviour towards their pets, and they can fulfil, at least in part, the attachment needs of the child. “Research has demonstrated developing loving bonds with the pet can compensate partly by providing a secure base to model later relationships. Another study suggested attachment to a pet dog is correlated with better adjustment in middle school.”
2. Boosting self-esteem:
Studies have suggested pets can satisfy “self-object needs and bolster self-esteem, sense of cohesion, calmness, and acceptance of self and others”. This can help children with anxiety, depression, and behavioural problems, she states. There is evidence that pets can provide children comfort, emotional support, and reassurance, especially when they are feeling angry, disturbed, or sad.
3. Cognitive development:
“Studies have indicated interacting regularly with a pet can accelerate language acquisition and enhance verbal skills in children,” Jain says, adding the reason could be that pets provide an “audience to the infant’s babbling and encourages speech by providing a stimulus for praise, rebuke, or affection”.
Additionally, learning takes place in the “context of the emotional support and unconditional positive regard provided by the pet”.
Having a pet can also improve performance on tests of executive functioning — including language, planning ability, meta-cognition — thereby improving academic performance, she states.
4. Dealing with loneliness
Research suggests having pets can counter loneliness. Jain concurs, “It helps them deal with depression and anxiety. High school students who owned pets had lower scores on standardised tests of loneliness as compared to those who did not own pets. Most research in this area has been carried out on adolescents. The impact of pet ownership on loneliness in younger children remains to be explored.”
