Adults who are more attached to their pet show more signs of emotional distress.
- In the study, 92.79% of the participants were women.
- Secure attachment is associated with better mental health.
The more people love their four-legged friend, the more they tend to show symptoms of mental disorders. This was revealed by scientists from the Saarland University in Germany. To reach this conclusion, they carried out a study, the results of which were published in the journal BMC Psychiatry.
610 dog owners were asked about their mental health
“A lot of research has looked at the link between emotional attachment to pets and mental health. (…) Some have shown that humans who develop an insecure attachment are much more attached to their pets,” wrote the researchers in the works. To confirm these results, the team interviewed 610 dog owners. Participants had to complete questionnaires about their mental health, their pet and their attachment to their four-legged companion.
Being very attached to your dog is linked to the “fear of being rejected and unloved”
According to the results, a stronger emotional attachment to one’s dog was associated with a lack of trust in others. “Lower comfort in depending on or trusting others is linked to a higher burden of disease,” can we read in the study. In addition, people who were more attached to their pets had more “fear of being rejected and unloved”.
“The work suggests that the link between emotional attachment to pets and mental health burden is explained by the difference in insecure attachment between humans. Future research needs to examine whether strong emotional attachments to pets companionship can be a compensatory strategy to alleviate difficult childhood experiences. concluded the authors.
