The Deep Affectional Bond Between Humans and Their Animal Companions: The Role of Experiences With Parents in Childhood and Current Parental Status

The close relationships humans experience with others are associated with the type of emotional bond they have with animal companions (pets). The elevated and complex status of animal companionship within the home environment has been examined in relation to individual differences in personality in humans and animal companions, and the health and wellbeing of family members. There is a more limited understanding of distal (humans’ experience of style of parental bonding in childhood; care, overprotection) and proximal (parental status of the animal companion owner; parent, nonparent) factors on that relationship. This study addressed the gap by recruiting 517 current owners of cats and dogs. They reported their human–human and human–pet insecure attachment orientation (anxious, avoidance) and experiences of parenting through a survey. As predicted, the findings indicated significant positive associations between human–human and human–pet social and emotional expectations of close relationships. Parenting style (overprotection) and parental status both predicted a significant proportion of the variance in human–pet anxious traits. This was not the case for the human–pet avoidance relationship orientation. The proximal and distal factors did not interact significantly with human–human anxious attachment. Therefore, it can be inferred from the main predictor outcomes that it is likely that pet owners who experience affectionate constraints in their relationship with their own parents and/or who do not have children will exhibit the characteristics of a more emotionally dependent relationship with a companion animal. This could have important implications for the way in which they protect their animal companion and experience their loss.