Animals as Means of Emotional Support And Companionship for Children Aged 9 to 13 Years Old. A. Salomon. Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, P.Q. H3C 3J7. 1995. (Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Human-Animal Interactions, Animals, Health and Quality of Life, September 6-9, 1995, Geneva, Switzerland).
The study deals with the feeling of loneliness, the social network and the search for help when finding oneself in uncertain situations among a group of 330 children aged 9 to 13 years who attend primary school. The children were asked to express themselves using four questionnaires; they wrote these tests in groups of 5 or 6. Three variables have been taken into account: sex, scholastic performance and socioeconomical environment. Several statistical analyses were carried out, in particular analyses of variance (anova) and correlation analyses.
While low performing children (i.e., children who are one or two-years behind in French and Mathematics) experience significantly more feelings of loneliness, have fewer friends, ask less for help when they are sad or in need of confiding their problems, the situation is different for high performing children. They mention more often having friends (p<.01) and animals (dog or cat, p<.05) as being of help. When these children feel an internal discomfort or feel alone, they seek support in animals, such support being emotional (i.e. having someone who listens, protects, reassures or shows his/her appreciation) or in the form of companionship (i.e., having someone who spends time with oneself). While not very high, the correlations are nevertheless significant between these forms of support and animals.
The question one can ask is whether low performing children do not "know" how to use animal resources (just as they have difficulties in their relations with peers) or that they do not have the benefit of the presence of animals in their family circle. The variables of sex and environment do sometimes influence the results: in some situations, girls call more often upon an animal than boys do and children from middle class families do so more than children from disadvantaged families. The results lead to consider the benefits of using animals with low performing children, to promote learning processes.
