"Furry Tales" : pet ownership's influence on subjective well-being during Covid-19 times / Svenja Damberg, Lena Frömbling

The social distancing required during Covid-19 times tended to make people feel lonelier than usual. Those with pets might, however, have experienced this less, because pets are known for fostering their owners’ subjective well-being. Building on a recently published structural equation model, our study enhances the understanding of subjective well-being by including the construct social distancing during Covid-19 times. In order to answer our research question—How does human-pet relationship need support influence subjective well-being by considering social isolation during Covid-19 times?—we build on the basic needs theory, assuming that humans as well as their pets have an inherent need of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Using a multivariate data analysis method, namely partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we establish a path model and examine the relationship between human-pet relationship need support and subjective well-being by including psychological distress and social isolation during Covid-19 times as mediators. We operationalize subjective well-being as a three-dimensional construct consisting of positive affect, happiness, and life satisfaction. In a sample of 215 pet owners in the USA, supporting their need increases subjective well-being, and decreases the psychological distress and loneliness caused by social isolation during Covid-19 times. Furthermore, psychological distress decreases subjective well-being, whereas perceived loneliness during Covid-19 times does not. Our main contributions are to not only enhance our knowledge on the importance of human-pet relationships in critical times, but also to provide policy makers with insights into what influences people’s subjective well-being, which is closely related to their psychological health..

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

2022

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:56

Enthalten in:

Quality & quantity - 56(2022), 5, Seite 3645-3664

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Damberg, Svenja [VerfasserIn]
Frömbling, Lena [VerfasserIn]

Links:

nbn-resolving.de [kostenfrei]
doi.org [kostenfrei]
hdl.handle.net [kostenfrei]
doi.org

Themen:

Covid-19
Human-pet relationship
Need support
PLS-SEM
Subjective well-being

Anmerkungen:

Sonstige Körperschaft: Technische Universität Hamburg

Sonstige Körperschaft: Technische Universität Hamburg, Institute of Human Resource Management and Organizations

doi:

10.15480/882.4738

10.1007/s11135-021-01303-7

Weitere IDs:

urn:nbn:de:gbv:830-882.0168371

11420/11374

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

1822873088