Pet ownership and children's self-esteem in the context of war

Keresteš, Gordana and Arambašić, Lidija and Kuterovac-Jagodić, Gordana and Vizek-Vidović, Vlasta. (1999). Pet ownership and children's self-esteem in the context of war. Anthrozoos, 12(4). pp. 218-223. ISSN 1753-0377

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine possible beneficial effects of pet ownership on the self- esteem of war-traumatized school children. The Croatian version of Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale was administered to three groups of elementary school children of both sexes, grades 5 to 8, all severely affected by war: dog or cat owners ( n =295), owners of other kinds of animals ( n =144), and non-pet owners ( n =173). There were no differences between groups on basic socio-demographic variables. It was hypothesized that war-traumatized pet owners, especially owners of dogs and cats, would have higher self-esteem than war-traumatized non-pet owners. Sex and age differences in self-esteem were also examined. The results of the three-way ANOVA (Pet x Ownership x Sex x Age) showed that only age had a significant effect on self-esteem, with fifth and sixth graders hav- ing higher self-esteem than seventh and eight graders. Thus, the hypothesis that pet ownership could have beneficial effects on self-esteem of war-traumatized children was not supported. The importance of more precise measures of the pet-child relationship is emphasized.

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