COMPANION ANIMALS AND OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING YOUNG CHILDRENS DEVELOPMENT

This study focuses on three factors presumed to affect young children' s development: their age, the quality of their home environments, and the child-pet relationship. Three sets of analyses are presented: effe cts associated with pet ownership (pet presence), effects associated w ith the strength of the child-pet relationship, and the combined effec ts of age, home environment, and the child-companion animal relationsh ip. This study includes both a parent survey (n=88) and in-home assess ments (n=44) of the three- to six-year-old children. The analyses supp ort the hypothesis that normal preschool children's intellectual, moto r, and social development is associated with the presence of a compani on animal and increases with their age, the quality of their home envi ronment, and their relationship with a companion animal. While the chi ldren's age and the quality of their home environments were associated with measures of the children's cognitive, motor, and social developm ent, the companion animal effect was limited to the young children's s ocial development including their empathy for other children.