The impact of keeping dogs or cats at home on social development of children age
4. 6 and 8 years was examined using interpersonal decentration. social
sensibility. social interaction. prosocial behaviour and self-reliance as
indicators of social development.
Three levels of age. two kinds of pets and sex construed 3 x 3 x 2 factorial
design. A total of 540 subjects. 30 subjects per cell took part in the study.
Dependent measures consisted of: interview. natural experiment. Test of Faces
and CAT. Subjects' mothers filled up information questionnaire and PARI
(attitude test) and teachers Observation Sheet. ANOVA analysis and t-test were
used to test between-group differences.
The main results were as follows: the difference in personal decentration
(p<.001) greater in groups of children with pets at home and higher scores in
prosocial behaviour measures (p<.001) in groups with dogs and cats at home.
Children with cats also show higher levels of self-reliance (p<.0l).
The results show the importance of keeping pets at home for the development of
prosocial behaviour even in the very young children. The results also show the
role played by domestic cats that may be important for future pet buyers.
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