Do Pets Really Improve Children’s Mental Health? What a New Study Says About Cats, Dogs, and Other Animals

For many families, bringing a pet into the home is seen as a positive experience for children. Dogs can become playmates, cats can offer companionship, and smaller animals such as rabbits, hamsters and fish can teach children about care and responsibility. But does having an animal at home actually improve a child’s mental health?

A recent study of families in Spain offers a more complicated answer. Researchers examined children’s early exposure to different types of pets and looked at indicators of mental health, including emotional and behavioural difficulties. While most common pets were not clearly associated with either better or worse mental health outcomes, the researchers identified an association between having a cat during the preschool years and higher levels of reported mental health problems.

The finding is interesting, but it does not mean that cats cause mental health difficulties. The researchers themselves point to several possible explanations and emphasise the need for further investigation.

What did the researchers study?

The research used information from the INMA Project, a long-running Spanish study examining children’s health and environmental exposures. The participants were followed from pregnancy through approximately six or seven years of age.

The analysis included around 1,900 households in several parts of Spain, including Asturias, Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country, Sabadell in Catalonia and Valencia.

More than half of the households, approximately 52 percent, had either owned or previously owned at least one pet. Dogs, cats, birds and smaller animals were all represented in the research.

The researchers were interested in whether the presence of animals was associated with different aspects of children’s mental health. These included what scientists commonly describe as internalising problems, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as externalising behaviours, including aggression, rule breaking and difficulties interacting with the surrounding environment.

Pets can provide important social and emotional experiences

There are several reasons parents may believe that animals are beneficial for children.

Caring for a pet can encourage children to develop responsibility. Feeding an animal, helping with its care and learning to respect its needs can introduce young children to routines and empathy.

Animals may also provide comfort. For some children, a pet can become a familiar source of companionship during stressful or unfamiliar situations. Pets can also encourage communication between family members because an animal can become a shared focus of attention.

Researchers have previously suggested that relationships with animals may support emotional regulation, social behaviour and children’s understanding of nonverbal communication.

However, the benefits of owning a pet are not necessarily the same for every child or every household. The animal’s temperament, the child’s age, family circumstances and the nature of the relationship can all make a difference.

The unusual finding involving cats

One of the most notable results from the study involved cats.

Children who had lived with a cat around the age of four or five showed an association with more mental health problems in the researchers’ analysis. This association remained an interesting finding after the researchers considered factors such as age, sex, social class and study cohort.

Importantly, an association does not demonstrate cause and effect.

In other words, the results cannot establish that having a cat makes children more likely to develop emotional or behavioural problems. It is possible that other factors, including circumstances within the household, influenced both the decision to have a cat and the child’s mental health.

The researchers also suggest that the relationship between cats and humans may differ from that involving some other animals. Cats are often more independent than dogs, and the type of interaction they have with children can vary considerably.

Another possibility is that families may choose particular pets because of circumstances that are already present in the household. If a child has emotional or behavioural difficulties, for example, parents might make different decisions about pets. This type of factor can make it difficult to determine which came first.

What about dogs and smaller animals?

The research did not find a clear relationship between living with dogs and children’s mental health. Birds also did not show a consistent association with either positive or negative outcomes.

The results were somewhat different for animals such as hamsters, rabbits, turtles and fish.

Children who consistently lived with these types of animals appeared to have more favourable mental health results. The researchers describe this as a potentially protective association, although it should not be interpreted as proof that these animals prevent mental health problems.

The continuity of the relationship may also matter.

Children who had regular and ongoing exposure to smaller pets tended to have better outcomes than those who had only experienced them intermittently. This raises the possibility that a stable relationship with an animal could be more meaningful than occasional contact.

Still, more research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Why the results should be interpreted carefully

The study has several limitations. The children were relatively young, so the findings may not apply to older children and teenagers. Mental health also develops through a complex combination of biological, psychological, social and environmental influences.

A pet is only one part of a child's environment.

Family relationships, household stability, socioeconomic circumstances, education, sleep, physical health and many other factors can influence emotional wellbeing. Even within the same household, two children may respond very differently to the same animal.

The researchers also note that some important variables may not have been captured in their analysis.

The discussion of cats and toxoplasmosis is another area that requires caution. Cats can be associated with exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that can infect humans. Previous research has investigated possible relationships between toxoplasmosis and behavioural or psychiatric conditions, but such associations are complex and should not be interpreted as evidence that living with a cat causes psychiatric illness.

So, should parents get a pet?

For parents considering an animal, this study should not be viewed as a reason to avoid cats or as proof that another pet will automatically improve a child's mental health.

Instead, it highlights how complicated the relationship between children and animals can be.

A suitable pet may provide companionship, routine, opportunities to learn responsibility and a source of comfort. But families should also consider practical issues such as the animal’s welfare, the amount of care required, allergies, household finances and whether adults are prepared to remain responsible for the animal.

The most important lesson from the research is that simply owning a pet is unlikely to determine a child's mental health. What may matter more is the quality and consistency of the relationship between the child, the animal and the family.

Future studies involving older children and longer periods of observation could help researchers understand whether particular animals have lasting effects on emotional wellbeing.

For now, the evidence suggests that pets can be valuable companions, but they should not be treated as a guaranteed mental health intervention. A loving, stable home environment remains far more important than the type of animal living in it.

Source: The INMA Project and an article by Llúcia González Safont, Blanca Sarzo Carles and Marisa Estarlich, originally published by The Conversation.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only. It should not be considered medical or psychological advice. Parents concerned about a child’s mental health should seek advice from a qualified healthcare professional.