Nikolina has published a variety of studies, including things like the effects of anthropomorphism of our dogs. With the rise of doggie boutiques, this is a very interesting topic.

Today, the focus is on the unexpected finding that being emotionally attached to your pet while at the same time having low levels of human social support predicts higher loneliness and depression scores. If you have a dog, if you're living alone, I think this study will interest you too.

More people living alone these days
The potential psychological health benefits that pets may confer to individuals living in one-person households is of particular interest. Worldwide there is a growing trend toward one-person households. One-person households accounted for 26% of American households in 2005, and these figures are similar for Europe and Australasia in 2006. It is expected that the number of one-person households will continue to increase in years to come at a faster rate than other types of households.

Based on a number of previous studies, it is usually concluded that pet ownership may be beneficial for the psychological health of individuals living alone. Our most recent study indicates that it's not so simple.

Our study
Our study built on previous work that examined the possible psychological health benefits of pet ownership for individuals living alone by considering the role of human social support and pet attachment.

In the case of human social support, previous research comparing pet and non-pet owners suggests that, for individuals who live alone, pets provide psychological health benefits, such as reducing negative moods and loneliness levels. However, the studies that examined the psychological health of individuals living alone with or without a pet did not explicitly examine the role of human social support. This is surprising given that, for individuals living alone, pet ownership (pet vs. no pet) and levels of human social support may both certainly affect psychological health.

In her research, Nikolina argued that, for individuals living alone, levels of human social support and pet ownership may interact to predict psychological health in terms of loneliness and depression levels.

In the case of pet attachment, there was no agreement in the existing literature as to whether high levels of attachment to pets were related to psychological health. However, this relation has not been examined among individuals in the general population who live alone. It may be that, for individuals living alone, the companionship provided by their pet is advantageous for their psychological health by, for example, reducing their loneliness levels.

The participants and the data
One hundred and thirty-two Canadian pet (dog and cat owners) and non-pet owners (defined as individuals who did not own a dog or cat) who were at least 18 years of age and living alone completed a 15 minute on-line survey of "factors affecting the well-being of individuals living alone." The sample consisted of 66 pet owners (40 dog owners and 26 cat owners) and 66 people who did not own a dog or a cat.

The participants completed measures of perceived social support ("I can talk about my problems with my friends"), emotional attachment to pets ("Quite often, my feelings toward people are affected by the way they react to my pet"), depression and loneliness.

We examined the possibility that attachment levels to pets and human social support levels interact to predict psychological health in terms of loneliness and depression levels.

The results
Contrary to expectations, pet owners and non-owners living alone did not have significantly different levels of loneliness or depression. Our finding of the lack of a direct relation between pet ownership and either loneliness or depression was unexpected, given that, in their responses to an open-ended question, both dog and cat owners indicated that the most important benefit of pet ownership was companionship. Furthermore, 82.5 percent of participants indicated that their pet has had a strong positive impact on their life. Our findings suggest that, although pets may be a source of companionship, the fact that pet owners living alone were not less lonely or depressed than individuals living alone without a pet raises the possibility that the benefits of pet ownership for dog and cat owners may only be apparent when other factors, such as levels of human social support, are considered.

When we examined the influence of human social support, results revealed that dog owners, but not cat owners, with high levels of human social support were significantly less lonely than non-owners with high levels of human social support. However, among individuals with low levels of human social support, there was no difference in the loneliness levels of dog and cat owners compared to non-owners. Furthermore, there were no differences in the depression levels of either dog or cat owners, according to their level of human social support.

The findings regarding loneliness suggest that, among individuals living alone, dog ownership is most beneficial for individuals who have sufficient human social support. While our findings only held for dog owners, the results are consistent with previous research with seniors. The conclusion from this earlier research was that individuals who benefited most from pet ownership were likely to already be well-supported in their social relationships and not dependent on the pet for company or to boost self-esteem.

The nature of social support
One possible explanation for the finding that dog owners with high levels of human social support were significantly less lonely than non-owners with high levels of human social support is provided by examining types of perceived social support. Generally we can distinguish three types of social support: emotional support (meeting an individual's need for love), tangible support (practical assistance, such as buying groceries when an individual is ill) and informational support (helping to solve problems and provide guidance). While it is unlikely that a dog could provide either tangible or informational support, a dog could provide emotional support. Indeed, the third most frequently cited benefit of dog ownership in our study was love and affection, endorsed by 41% of the sample.

Among individuals living alone with high levels of human social support, their dog may provide an additional source of emotional support that is not available to non-owners. However, among individuals with low levels of human social support, the emotional support provided by a dog may not be sufficient to compensate for insufficient human social support. This may explain why they do not differ from non-owners with low levels of human social support in terms of loneliness levels.