PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Although many companion animal (or \"pet\") owners report that their relationships with their pets are important, we know little about how animal ownership duration and animal life stage are related to relationship quality. In a sample of 1303 dog and cat owners, the present research explored the associations between relationship duration, pet life stage (puppy/kitten, young adult, mature adult, and senior), and four markers of relationship quality: pet-related self-expansion, perceived pet responsiveness, perceived pet insensitivity, and human-animal bond. We found that relationship duration was negatively and linearly associated with self-expansion for both dog and cat owners. Results comparing relationship quality markers across pet life stages revealed that for both dog and cat owners, self-expansion was higher for owners of younger animals compared to owners of older animals. There were no significant effects for perceived pet responsiveness, perceived pet insensitivity, or human-animal bond based on relationship duration or animal life stage. These findings indicate that the duration of the relationship with one\'s pet and animal life stage have implications for how much people feel a pet helps them grow, whereas other markers of human-pet relationship quality likely vary based on other experiences.
摘要：
尽管许多伴侣动物（或“宠物”）主人报告说，他们与宠物的关系很重要，我们对动物所有权持续时间和动物生命阶段与关系质量的关系知之甚少。在1303只狗和猫主人的样本中，本研究探索了关系持续时间之间的关联，宠物生活阶段（小狗/小猫，年轻的成年人，成熟的成年人，andsenior),关系质量的四个标志：与宠物相关的自我扩张，感知到的宠物反应能力，感知宠物不敏感，和人与动物的纽带。我们发现，关系持续时间与狗和猫主人的自我扩张呈负相关和线性关系。比较不同宠物生命阶段的关系质量标记的结果表明，对于狗和猫的主人来说，与年龄较大的动物的所有者相比，年轻动物的所有者的自我扩张更高。对感知的宠物反应没有显著影响，感知宠物不敏感，或基于关系持续时间或动物生命阶段的人与动物联系。这些发现表明，与宠物和动物生命阶段的关系的持续时间对人们感觉宠物帮助他们成长的程度有影响，而人与宠物关系质量的其他标记可能因其他经验而异。
