PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH IN A POPULATION OF AUSTRALIAN CAT OWNERS

Ninety-two cat owners, and 70 non-pet subjects were surveyed to determ ine the relationship between psychological health and pet ownership. T he survey employed measures of general psychological health, depressio n, state and trait anxiety, sleep disturbance, nurturance, attitudes t oward pets, social desirability, and a life events inventory. The stud y hypothesized that cat owners would be more psychologically healthy t han non-pet owners and that this difference would be reflected in the cat owners having lower scores on the measures of general psychologica l health, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance. The study also p roposed that cat owners would be more nurturing and have a more favora ble attitude toward pets than non-pet owners. Findings showed that the cat owners had significantly lower scores for general psychological h ealth, indicating a lower level of psychiatric disturbance, and could be considered to have better psychological health than the non-pet sub jects. The cat owners also had significantly higher pet attitude score s than non-pet subjects, indicating a more favorable attitude toward p ets. No significant differences were found for depression, anxiety, sl eep disturbance, nurturance, social desirability, or life events for c at owners and non-pet subjects.