Library Dissertation Showcase

Human wellbeing and loneliness in dog owners and non-dog owners

  • Year of Publication:
  • 2022

There is growing literature surrounding the beneficial impacts of dog ownership on human wellbeing and mitigation for loneliness. Despite the multitude of research, studies have consistently failed to recognise the impacts of additional factors such as gender and age when exploring dog ownership and its benefits. The study aimed to identify if a relationship existed between dog ownership, wellbeing and loneliness in males and females, dog owners and nondog owners and old and young participants. This was tested in a sample of seventy one participants, via use of the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and the UCLA loneliness scale. The findings displayed that dog owners were significantly less lonely compared to non-dog owners, interesting interaction effects of gender and dog ownership on loneliness were observed with female dog owners showing higher loneliness compared to male dog owners however male non-dog owners scoring higher on the UCLA loneliness scale. Findings surrounding wellbeing highlighted that the wellbeing scores were greater for dog owners compared to non-dog owners, in particular male dog owners. The results from this study provide important implications for areas such as animal assisted therapies and interventions, in providing support for the beneficial impacts of the use of dogs in these practices. Improvements and recommendations for future research are discussed.

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