Companion animals and profiles of peer social behavior in adolescence.

Abstract

Relationships with companion animals have been associated with higher levels of prosocial behavior and lower levels of socioemotional difficulties for children and adolescents. Companion animals may be supportive of developing prosocial behavior in youth through practice with positive social interactions and the development of empathy and reciprocity skills. The goal of this study was to use a person-centered approach to investigate if living with a pet (including pet species) is associated with profiles of adolescent peer social behaviors (i.e., prosocial, aggressive), and size of their peer network. This study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®, a large, nationally representative data set of American adolescents. In a cross-sectional sample of 5218 adolescents, we found that youth clustered into four different distinct profiles of peer social behavior. Female youth living with dogs were less likely to be in the High Aggression profile as compared to youth without pets or youth with other types of pets. However, having a pet was not associated with whether youth were in the profiles characterized by prosocial behaviors or size of peer network. Overall, future research should explore how gender intersects with companion animal interactions-both in terms of frequency of interactions as well as relationship quality/emotional attachment-as well as examine these relationships over time to assess causality.