An Evaluation of Pet Owners' Attachment Style and the Human-Animal Bond

The specific problem explored in this study was how attachment style may moderate the relationship between strength of the bond and stress in pet owners, measured by levels of avoidance and anxiety in attachment relationships, in a convenience sample of pet owners. The strength of the human-animal bond, a moderating variable, was measured by the Owner Pet Relationship Questionnaire and attachment anxiety and avoidance, the other two moderating variables, were measured by scores obtained on both anxiety and avoidance from the Pet Attachment Questionnaire. The Perceived Stress Scale represented the dependent variable, which is a common measure of stress used in psychological applications. Participants included pet owners over the age of 18 and were recruited online through SurveyMonkey. The data were analyzed through the use of multiple regressions to test whether the independent variables interact in their effects on the dependent variable. Four hypotheses were tested. Significant effects were found for strength of bond and avoidance on stress in the pet owner. Significant moderation of attachment style, with the relationship, between strength of the human-animal bond and pet owner's stress reduction, was found controlling for anxiety and avoidance. However, anxiety was not found to be a significant effect on stress. A future study in this area could attempt to use a random sample of respondents, or a similar methodology, in order to obtain a sample of individuals whom are representative of a larger population. The use and collection of panel data, or longitudinal data on a specific sample of respondents would allow for the determination of causality between measures, as opposed to the use of a cross-sectional sample.