Children's Attitudes toward Their Pets

Abstract

150 boys and 150 girls between the ages of 3 and 13 yr. were individually interviewed using a series of investigator-generated open-ended questions to analyze the children's attitudes toward their pets. It was hypothesized that the cognitive elements would progress from preoperational to concrete operations at seven and to formal operations at 13, that the affective elements would progress from egocentricity to empathy and perspective-taking, and that behavioral elements would progress from dependence on situational cues to caring behavior based on realistically assessed characteristics of pets. Although the data supported the second and third hypotheses, the cognitive elements progressed only from preoperational to concrete operations. There was no evidence that the 13-yr.-olds had entered the formal operations stage. Other data indicated that 90% owned pets but 99.3% wanted pets, a significant indication of children's over-all positive attitude toward pets. Further research was suggested.