Long-term benefits of dog ownership: Effects on stress and social behavior

养狗的长期好处：对压力和社会行为的影响

• 批准号: 8207421
• 负责人: KRISTEN C. JACOBSON
• 金额: $ 7.8万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8207421
• 关键词: Address; Adolescence; Adult; Age; Aggressive behavior; Animals; Anxiety; Attitude; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavior Disorders; Behavioral; Biological; Biological Markers; Biology; Canis familiaris; Characteristics; Child; Child Development; Child health care; Childhood; Clinical; Collection; Complement; Data; Data Set; Depressed mood; Dimensions; Discipline; Emotional; Emotional disorder; Empathy; Endocrinology; Environment; Environmental Risk Factor; Event; Experimental Psychology; Exposure to; Family; Family Characteristics; Funding; Future; Genetic; Happiness; Health behavior; Human; Human Development; Hydrocortisone; Individual; Individual Differences; Interview; Laboratories; Lead; Life; Long-Term Effects; Measures; Mediating; Mental Depression; Outcome; Ownership; Oxytocin; Participant; Patient Self-Report; Personal Satisfaction; Persons; Physiological; Pilot Projects; Plasma; Prevention program; Recording of previous events; Research; Research Project Grants; Risk; Role; Salivary; Sampling; Social Behavior; Social Environment; Social Phobia; Social Psychology; Social isolation; Social support; Sociology; Stress; Testing; Time; aged; anti social; base; behavior measurement; developmental disease; developmental psychology; heart rate variability; indexing; intervention program; pet animal; protective effect; psychologic; psychosocial; response; social; young adult

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is growing evidence that pet-assisted therapies may be beneficial for children with physical, emotional, and developmental disorders. In addition, human-animal interaction (HAI) and pet ownership are associated with lower stress and increased prosocial behavior and psychological well-being in children and adults. However, a number of research questions remain unanswered. First, do biological mechanisms (e.g., oxytocin) associated with HAI in previous studies mediate relationships between HAI and prosocial behavior and stress? Second, do the positive benefits of pet ownership during childhood have lasting effects on biology and behavior in late adolescence and young adulthood? Third, do individual or group differences, including both person and context characteristics, as well as experimentally-induced stress, moderate the effects of HAI on biology and behavior? The proposed study will utilize a sample of 96 individuals aged 18-25 to specifically address the above research questions. Subjects will be brought to the PI's laboratory for a brief (20 minute) interaction with a friendly, unfamiliar dog (experimental HAI). Indices of prosocial behavior and stress will be obtained via laboratory paradigms. Collection of repeated plasma oxytocin and salivary cortisol samples and measures of heart rate variability will allow us to assess the impact of experimental HAI on underlying biological mechanisms. Half of study participants will have a history of childhood dog ownership, and the other half will not have previously owned pets. No subjects will currently live with pets. Half of the study participants will undergo HAI prior to the stress paradigm, and the other half will interact with te dog after the stress paradigm, allowing us to determine whether HAI reduces biological markers of stress, and whether stress facilitates the release of oxytocin during HAI. Moreover, we will collect self-report and clinical interview data from all 96 subjects on current behavioral and emotional outcomes (e.g., aggression, depression, prosocial behavior), person characteristics (e.g., empathy, attitudes towards animals), and measures of social environment (e.g., recent stressful life events, social support, family characteristics) that may moderate or predict the effects of HAI on biology and behavior. Finally, we will assess the timing of exposure to dogs, intensity of attachment to pets, and dog characteristics as factors that may predict individual differences in biology and behavior among prior dog-owners. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: By applying an ecological framework to investigating individual differences in the long-term effects of exposure to pets during childhood on biology and behavior in late adolescence and adulthood, the proposed study could lead to targeted intervention and prevention programs in children at-risk for a variety of emotional and behavioral conditions, including autism, anxiety, depression, social phobia, and antisocial behavior, and could further indicate whether human animal interaction (HAI) in childhood is likely to have long-lasting protective effects on emotional and behavioral disorders in late adolescence and young adulthood.

描述（由申请人提供）：越来越多的证据表明，宠物辅助疗法可能对身体，情感和发育障碍的儿童有益。此外，儿童和成人的人体互动（HAI）和宠物的所有权与较低的压力和社会社会行为和心理健康有关。但是，许多研究问题仍未得到解决。首先，在先前的研究中，与HAI相关的生物学机制（例如，催产素）是否介导了HAI与亲社会行为与压力之间的关系？其次，在儿童时期，宠物所有权的积极益处对青春期和成年后期的生物学和行为产生持久影响？第三，个人或群体差异是否包括人和情境特征，以及实验性诱发的压力，可以调节HAI对生物学和行为的影响？拟议的研究将利用18-25岁年龄的96名个人来专门解决上述研究问题。受试者将与友好，陌生的狗（实验性HAI）进行短暂的（20分钟）互动。亲社会行为和压力的指标将通过实验室范例获得。收集重复的血浆催产素和唾液皮质醇样品以及心率变异性测量方法将使我们能够评估实验HAI对潜在生物学机制的影响。一半的研究参与者将拥有童年狗所有权的历史，而另一半将没有以前拥有的宠物。目前没有宠物与宠物一起生活。一半的研究参与者将在应力范式之前进行HAI，而另一半将在压力范式后与TE狗相互作用，从而使我们能够确定HAI是否减少了压力的生物学标志，以及压力是否促进了HAI期间的催产素的释放。此外，我们将收集有关当前行为和情感成果的所有96个主题的自我报告和临床访谈数据（例如侵略，抑郁症，社会行为），人特征（例如，同情，对动物的态度），以及社会环境的度量以及最近的压力事件，社会支持，家庭支持，家庭特征，可以预测效应和行为效果。最后，我们将评估暴露于狗的时机，对宠物的依恋强度以及狗的特征，这是可以预测先前狗业主之间生物学和行为的个体差异的因素。 公共健康相关性：通过将生态框架应用于调查儿童期间暴露于宠物的长期影响的个体差异对青春期和成年后期生物学和行为的长期影响，拟议的研究可能会导致针对儿童在儿童处于危险中的靶向干预和预防计划在青春期和成年后期，可能对情绪和行为障碍具有长期保护作用。