New research investigates the ways pets can influence their owners’ social and emotional wellbeing.

In recent years, a growing body of scientific evidence supporting the ability of pets to improve their owner’s social connectivity and offer emotional support has been published. Recent research has found that dog owners converse with more people in their local neighbourhood, and cats have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety through physical contact. However, much of this research has come from Western countries, and it is unknown to what extent these findings apply to other countries and cultures.

This is somewhat surprising considering that the highest levels of reported pet ownership do not come from Western countries, with Latin America and Southeast Asia leading the way, and is not limited to cats and dogs. In Japan, the number of pets owned outweighs the number of children, and cat ownership is especially popular —linked to a cultural phenomenon known as “nekonomics”. For this reason, a new largescale study has investigated the impact of pet ownership on Japanese society.

New study into pet ownership

The study included data from 8,821 adult participants who took part in a larger research initiative—the Geo-social Survey for Urban Lifestyle Preferences (GULP). The participants lived in 21 major cities in Japan, and answered questions related to three socioemotional outcomes: neighbourhood place attachment, social capital and happiness.

Participants were categorised into four groups: non-pet, dog, other pet (cats, birds, fish etc), and dog and other pet. This allowed researchers to examine the impact of pet species other than dogs on their owners’ lives, which has been the focus of a large proportion of prior research. They also investigated how different pet combinations, as well as the owners’ gender, impacted their psychosocial health outcomes.

Similarities and differences

The research findings revealed that participants who owned dogs, plus other pets, scored higher on neighbourhood place attachment and social capital, regardless of their gender. Dog ownership by itself was connected to increased social capital, but not place attachment. Men who owned other pets also exhibited higher neighbourhood attachment, but the same was not true for women, perhaps owing to gender differences in caregiver burden.

No significant differences in self-reported happiness were observed between pet owners and participants who didn’t own pets, regardless of pet type and participant gender. This suggests that whilst pets may enhance some aspects of our social experience, this doesn’t necessarily translate into greater happiness. It also highlights the importance of considering the impact of pet ownership in other cultural contexts, which may contain additional challenges, like housing restrictions and urban planning.

Impact and implications

The findings of this study provide insights into the ways that pet ownership can impact our socioemotional wellbeing in non-Western contexts. It is likely that the positive relationship between social capital and dog ownership is connected to social facilitation in shared community spaces, such as parks. However, the observation that place attachment was highest for people who owned dogs and other pets suggests that a more diverse range of interactions may result in a deeper sense of community belonging.

The findings also reveal the different experience of pet ownership for men and women. Although noted to some degree in the Western literature, these differences may be exaggerated in Japanese society due to its stricter gender roles, where women are primarily seen as the caregivers. Due to the nature of many of the ‘other pets’ being indoors, caring for them may actually take women away from neighbourhood interactions.

Final thoughts

The study emphasises the importance of considering cultural context, gender and pet type when considering the ways that pets shape our socioemotional wellbeing. Pet ownership and pet culture is rising in Asia and Africa, so it’s important that the research conducted represents this shift, and seeks to better understand the impact pets have on our lives, whoever and wherever we are.

Key study findings:

• Dog ownership was related to higher social capital
• Multi-pet ownership (dog + other) was associated with the highest levels of both social capital and neighbourhood place attachment
• Other pet ownership was linked to greater social capital and neighbourhood attachment in men
• No relationship was observed between pet ownership and happiness