Associations Between Pet Ownership, Posttraumatic Growth, and Stress Symptoms in Adolescents

Dominick, Whitney; Walenski-Geml, Aundreah; Taku, Kanako

doi:10.1080/08927936.2020.1771059

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…These contradictory findings may be explained by the several types of analyses—while pets and perceiving support from pets may provide a degree of social support that is helpful in the development of PTG when considered in isolation, support from pets may be less important and play a smaller role than support from humans when both types of social support are considered together. This would correspond with the prior research which found that more time spent with pets corresponded with higher growth in the relating to others domain of PTG for adolescents (Dominick et al, 2019 ), which assessed the impact of pets independently from the impact of human social support.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Pet attachment mediated the relationship between general health and loneliness in older women (Krause-Parello, 2008 ), was positively correlated with life satisfaction in adults over 40 (Fu and Zheng, 2009 ), and corresponded with a higher sense of emotional support in adults from India (Joseph et al, 2019 ). Additionally, adolescents who spent more time with pets, which has been correlated to higher pet attachment (Joseph et al, 2019 ), reported higher PTG in the domain regarding social connections (Dominick et al, 2019 ). Chinese adults who spent more time caring for a pet also displayed increased attachment to that pet, which in turn reduced stress in the owners (Wu et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in posttraumatic growth, core belief disruption, and social support over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Dominick

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Post-traumatic Growth (PTG) is the positive psychological change that may occur after a highly stressful situation that shakes a person's core beliefs about the world. During 2020, the United States experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and a highly contentious political election, both of which have the potential to disrupt core beliefs and evoke perceptions of PTG. Post-traumatic growth, core belief disruption, perceived social support from humans and pets, coping strategies, and stressful events were assessed in 201 participants from the United States (Mage: 35.39, SD: 14.60) at four time points from April 2020 (T1) until April 2021 (T4). While total PTG did not significantly change from Time 1 to Time 4, perceptions of personal strength and new possibilities increased, as did core belief disruption, and the use of coping strategies decreased. Higher PTG was reported by those who owned pets, those who knew someone who had been hospitalized due to COVID-19, and those who knew someone who had died of COVID-19. While rating COVID-19 or politics as the most stressful event at Time 4 did not correspond to differences in PTG, those who perceived the event to be resolved had higher PTG than those who perceived the event to be ongoing. Having COVID-19 personally and vaccination status was not associated with differences in Post-traumatic Growth. PTG at Time 4 was predicted by core belief disruption and social support in the full sample and in the pet owners only sample, and by support from video conferencing for the full sample only. Time 4 PTG was also predicted by core belief disruption, problem-focused coping, and avoidance coping. Results are discussed in terms of the PTG theoretical model. Additionally, implications for interventions aimed at fostering psychological growth, including through non-traditional forms of social support (i.e., remote communication and perceived support from pets) are addressed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in posttraumatic growth, core belief disruption, and social support over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Dominick

2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…PTG was assessed with a modified version of the PTG Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). The modified version uses the first 10 items of the 21-item PTGI (Dominick et al, 2020). Participants were asked after each item to select which of the events they experienced might attribute to growth on that item by providing a list of all the potential experienced events.…”

Section: Posttraumatic Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of multiple stressful life events on posttraumatic growth in adolescence.

Fraus

Dominick

Walenski

et al. 2023

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

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Objective: Posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been primarily recognized as a result of experiencing a single life crisis. The current study investigated how PTG may be attributed to experiences of a multitude of highly stressful life events, and how PTG is correlated with PTSD symptoms, the severity of the event, and the total number of childhood traumas experienced. Method: Adolescents (N = 139) participated in a survey that assessed six major life events of childhood trauma and rated the severity of each event, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and PTG. Results: The majority of adolescents attributed their PTG experiences to one event, despite experiencing multiple traumas. However, experiencing more events was associated with greater PTSS and some forms of PTG such as changed priorities, increased self-reliance, and establishing a new path in life. Results from regression analyses also showed that trauma severity and PTSS were linearly correlated with PTG, and thus, a curvilinear relationship was not identified. Conclusions: Cumulative traumatic events may lead to increases in a sense of personal growth, while also increasing distress, in nonclinical adolescents. Clinical Impact StatementAdolescents have been shown to experience posttraumatic growth (PTG). It was found that even adolescents who experience multiple traumatic life events often focus on one salient event when recognizing PTG. However, those who report PTG as a result of multiple traumatic events note increases in self-reliance, changed priorities, and identifying new life paths, while also increased distress. These results inform researchers and clinicians that when assessing PTG in adolescents, the focus should not be limited toward the raw number of traumatic events experienced, but rather subjective perceptions of severity, meanings of each event, and core beliefs disruption from each event.

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“…Previous studies found that animals can protect people with lower social support levels against negative effects of stressful situations’ negative effects (Amiot and Bastian 2015 ), in that the presence of a companion animal buffers against negative feelings (Janssens et al 2020 ). Furthermore, pet ownership and social support are found to be predictors of survival in and after crisis situations, including illnesses (Friedmann and Thomas 1995 ), or posttraumatic growth (Dominick et al 2020 ). However, having to care for a pet might not in itself lead to lower levels of depression (Miltiades and Shearer 2011 ).…”

Section: Model Development and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Furry tales”: pet ownership’s influence on subjective well-being during Covid-19 times

Damberg

Frömbling

2021

Qual Quant

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The social distancing required during Covid-19 times tended to make people feel lonelier than usual. Those with pets might, however, have experienced this less, because pets are known for fostering their owners’ subjective well-being. Building on a recently published structural equation model, our study enhances the understanding of subjective well-being by including the construct social distancing during Covid-19 times. In order to answer our research question—How does human-pet relationship need support influence subjective well-being by considering social isolation during Covid-19 times?—we build on the basic needs theory, assuming that humans as well as their pets have an inherent need of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Using a multivariate data analysis method, namely partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we establish a path model and examine the relationship between human-pet relationship need support and subjective well-being by including psychological distress and social isolation during Covid-19 times as mediators. We operationalize subjective well-being as a three-dimensional construct consisting of positive affect, happiness, and life satisfaction. In a sample of 215 pet owners in the USA, supporting their need increases subjective well-being, and decreases the psychological distress and loneliness caused by social isolation during Covid-19 times. Furthermore, psychological distress decreases subjective well-being, whereas perceived loneliness during Covid-19 times does not. Our main contributions are to not only enhance our knowledge on the importance of human-pet relationships in critical times, but also to provide policy makers with insights into what influences people’s subjective well-being, which is closely related to their psychological health.

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Associations Between Pet Ownership, Posttraumatic Growth, and Stress Symptoms in Adolescents

Cited by 6 publications

References 40 publications

Changes in posttraumatic growth, core belief disruption, and social support over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Changes in posttraumatic growth, core belief disruption, and social support over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of multiple stressful life events on posttraumatic growth in adolescence.

“Furry tales”: pet ownership’s influence on subjective well-being during Covid-19 times

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