Impact of pet ownership in early childhood at ages 1 and 4-5 years on mental health at ages 7-8: findings from the INMA project.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We aimed to explore associations between the presence of pets at one and 4-5 years of age with internalizing and externalizing problems at 7-8 years.

Methods

Participants comprised 1893 families from the INfancia y Medio Ambiente (INMA) project. Information was collected on the presence of (1) any pet, (2) dogs, (3) cats, (4) birds or (5) other animals. Pet ownership was categorized as never, always, only at age 1 and only at age 4-5. Internalizing and externalizing problems were measured at ages 7-8 years through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a Likert questionnaire on children's behavioural and emotional symptoms. Negative binomial regression models and Tukey's multiple comparison tests were used to analyse data sets. Five sensitivity analyses wer

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12578733 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature