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. 2020 Jan 31;17(3):884.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17030884.

Dog and Cat Ownership Predicts Adolescents' Mental Well-Being: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study

Kaori Endo  1 , Syudo Yamasaki  1 , Shuntaro Ando  2 , Takefumi Kikusui  3 , Kazutaka Mogi  3 , Miho Nagasawa  3 , Itsuka Kamimura  3 , Junko Ishihara  4 , Miharu Nakanishi  1 , Satoshi Usami  5 , Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa  6 , Kiyoto Kasai  2 , Atsushi Nishida  1
Affiliations

Dog and Cat Ownership Predicts Adolescents' Mental Well-Being: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study

Kaori Endo et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

A potential association between pet ownership and mental well-being is suggested, but there is a shortage of high-quality longitudinal studies that consider probable differences among different species. We aimed to examine whether ownership of the most popular pets (dogs and cats) would predict mental well-being. The Tokyo Teen Cohort (TTC), a prospective population-based birth cohort study, had dog and cat ownership data at age 10 and mental well-being score at ages 10 and 12 from 2584 adolescents. Linear regression analysis with adjusting for covariates showed that dog ownership had a positive effect on mental well-being compared to no dog ownership, however, cat ownership had a negative effect compared to no cat ownership. Two-factor mixed-design analysis of variance showed that dog ownership predicted maintained mental well-being, while cat ownership predicted progressing decline of mental well-being. Thus, dog and cat ownership may have different effects on adolescents' mental well-being, implying that the underlying mechanisms that are activated by these types of ownership may differ.

Keywords: adolescent; cats; cohort studies; dogs; pets; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Averages of well-being (WHO5) at ages 10 and 12 among non-dog/cat owners, dog owners, and cat owners (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01). Two-way mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant interaction of time points and owner types (F (2, 2572) = 6.78, p = 0.001). Simple main effect of owner types was not significant at age 10 (F (2, 2572) = 0.18, p = 0.835), but it was significant at age 12 (F (2, 2572) = 6.61, p = 0.001). Bonferroni adjustments were administered for multiple comparisons and found significant pairs at age 12 as follows: cat owners (owned no dogs) and non-dog/cat owners (p = 0.017) and cat owners (owned no dogs) and dog owners (owned no cats) (p = 0.001). Other pairs were not significant. The simple main effect of time points was significant in non-dog/cat owners (F = 85.55, p < 0.001) and cat owners (owned no dogs) (F = 26.21, p < 0.001) but not significant in dog owners (owned no cats) (F = 1.38, p = 0.240).
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