ArticleBMC pediatrics2024
Companion animals and child development outcomes: longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of a UK birth cohort study.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- The impact of a dog-facilitated mobile physical activity intervention on children's social-emotional development: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2026Trial
- Pet ownership and parent-reported mental health in pediatric transplantation. A cross-sectional study from the European reference network Transplantchild. The pink study.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Impact of pet ownership in early childhood at ages 1 and 4-5 years on mental health at ages 7-8: findings from the INMA project.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2025Article
- Measuring Connections Between Children and Pets: Development of the Child-Dog Engagement Scale and Child-Cat Engagement Scale.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundResearch into the impact of social relationships on childhood and adolescent health and wellbeing has been largely limited to children's relationships with other humans, while studies into the impact of pet ownership are sparse and have generally not adjusted for potential confounders. This study aimed to investigate the association between pet ownership and a range of developmental outcomes in childhood and adolescence.
methodsData were self-reports and direct assessments of approx. 14,000 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Multivariable regression models adjusting for confounding factors examined associations between developmental outcome measures (emotional health, behavioural development, cognitive development, language development, educational attainment) and concurrent pet ownership, including species, and also longitudinal pet ownership history and pet-interaction where possible. Analyses model numbers using multiple imputation varied from n = 393-8963.
resultsIn cross-sectional analyses, owning a dog (b = 0.24, [0.06-0.41], p = .004) and owning other/miscellaneous pets (b = 0.18, [0.03-0.33], p = .021) at age 3 were associated with higher prosocial behaviour score. Owning a pet was associated with a higher non-verbal communication score at age 2 (cross-sectional, b = 0.18, [0.04-0.32], p = .014), and a higher language development score at age 5 (cross-sectional, b = 1.01, [0.18-1.83], p = .017). However, pet ownership was associated with lower educational attainment across a number of academic subjects and timepoints, in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. It was also cross-sectionally linked to hyperactivity at age 3 and conduct problems at age 3 and 11. Furthermore, at age 8, cross-sectional analysis showed that children who owned any pets (OR [95% CI]: 0.85 [0.73-0.98], p= ·026) or cats (0.83, [0.73-0.95], p= ·006) had lower odds of high self-esteem (scholastic competence).
conclusionsUsing a large, well-designed longitudinal study and adjusting for key confounders, we found little evidence of cross-sectional or longitudinal associations between pet ownership and emotional health or cognitive outcomes in children. There may, however, be some cross-sectional and longitudinal association with poorer educational attainment and a positive impact on social interactions as seen through associations with enhanced language development and prosocial behaviour. This study demonstrates the importance of adjustment for confounding variables and suggests that, contrary to popular belief, positive impacts of pet ownership on childhood development may be mainly limited to social behaviour and language development.
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