The Association Between Pet Attachment And Prosocial Behavior Of Junior High School Students ——The Mediating Effect Of Personality Traits And Loneliness

Junior high school students are in adolescence with rapid physical and mental development,and they have not yet formed a stable personality.They feel more lonely than other stages in their life.How to cultivate teenagers’ prosocial behavior and promote their physical and mental health development has practical significance.With the increase of pet families,exploring the influence mechanism of pet attachment on prosocial behavior will add a guiding method to junior high school students’ mental health education.Previous studies have found that pet attachment,as a supplement of social support,can not only decrease the loneliness but also increase children’s prosocial behavior whereas there are few studies about the mechanism between teenagers’ pet attachment and prosocial behavior.This study attempts to explore the basic situation of pet attachment of junior high school students,verifies the relationship between pet attachment and prosocial behavior,and further explores whether loneliness and personality traits are mediators between pet attachment and prosocial behavior.In this study,467 junior high school students in Liaocheng of Shandong Province were selected as the research objects.They were investigated by translated LAPS,PTM,Adolescent Five Personality Questionnaire and Adolescent Loneliness Questionnaire.The data was processed by spss 23.0,and the methods of ANOVA,correlation analysis and bootstrap test draw these conclusions:（1）There was no significant difference on pet attachment of junior high school students in pet types,but significant difference in gender,grade,only child or not,father’s income,mother’s income,source of students and pet time.（2）There are significant correlations between pet attachment,personality traits,loneliness and prosocial behavior.There is a significant negative correlation between pet attachment and loneliness,and a significant positive correlation between pet attachment and prosocial behavior.Loneliness is negatively correlated with prosocial behavior.Four dimensions of personality traits are negatively correlated with loneliness,while the emotionality is positively correlated with loneliness;all dimensions of personality traits are positively correlated with pet attachment and prosocial behavior.（3）Agreeableness,openness and responsibility in personality traits and loneliness can be the mediators between pet attachment and prosocial behavior independently,but they are not multiple mediators between pet attachment and prosocial behavior.While junior high school students have not formed a stable personality,playing with pets can reduce their loneliness.Their activities with pets can help them form a positive personality and increase their prosocial behavior.