Research finds pets are better siblings than people
If you ever longed for a sibling as a child but only had pets to keep you company, we’ve got good news – you might have been better off! According to new research from the University of Cambridge, kids “get more satisfaction with their pets than with their brothers or sisters.”
Gates Cambridge Scholar at the university’s Department of Psychiatry and lead researcher, Matt Cassells, wanted to learn more about how siblings and pets affected a child’s development, and what he found was certainly surprising.
After surveying 12-year-old children from 77 families with one of more siblings and pets, Cassells and his research team found that kids reported having stronger relationships with their pets than with their brothers or sisters.
“Even though pets may not fully understand or respond verbally, the level of disclosure to pets was no less than to siblings,” he explained. “The fact that pets cannot understand or talk back may even be a benefit as it means they are completely non-judgmental.”
The new findings come just a few months after another study by researchers from Manchester and Southampton Universities found that pets can have a positive and significant effect on people suffering from mental illness.
“When you just want to sink into a pit and just sort of retreat from the entire world, they force me, the cats force me to sort of still be involved with the world,” one participant in the study, an owner of two cats, explained.
“Pets constituted a valuable source of illness work in managing feelings through distraction from symptoms and upsetting experiences, and provided a form of encouragement for activity,” researchers concluded. “Pets should be considered a main rather than a marginal source of support in the management of long-term mental health problems.”
Did you prefer the company of pets or siblings when you were a child? What do you think about these findings? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.