Genetic and Environmental Influences on Individual Differences in Frequency of Play with Pets among Middle-Aged Men: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis

Jacobson, Kristen C.; Hoffman, Christy L.; Vasilopoulos, Terrie; Kremen, William S.; Panizzon, Matthew S.; Grant, Michael D.; Lyons, Michael J.; Xian, Hong; Franz, Carol E.

doi:10.2752/175303712x13479798785814

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 97 publications

(132 reference statements)

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“…Our findings are in line with a previous study in 614 male twin pairs (mean age 55.4) from the US Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging 34 . In that study, the response to the question “During the past 30 days, how often did you play with pets” was estimated to have heritability of 37% (95% CI, 28–44%) and <10% due to shared environmental factors.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…These estimations rely on the underlying assumptions that MZ and DZ twin pairs share environment to a similar degree, that MZ twins share their entire genome, and that DZ twins on average share 50% of their segregating alleles 33 . A previous study of twin pairs aged 51–60 indicated that genetic factors account for up to 37% of the variation in the frequency of pet play and that less than 10% is attributable to the shared childhood environment 34 indicating a strong contribution of genetic factors to the amount of playful interaction with pets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence of large genetic influences on dog ownership in the Swedish Twin Registry has implications for understanding domestication and health associations

Fall

Kuja‐Halkola

Dobney

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Dogs were the first domesticated animal and, according to the archaeological evidence, have had a close relationship with humans for at least 15,000 years. Today, dogs are common pets in our society and have been linked to increased well-being and improved health outcomes in their owners. A dog in the family during childhood is associated with ownership in adult life. The underlying factors behind this association could be related to experiences or to genetic influences. We aimed to investigate the heritability of dog ownership in a large twin sample including all twins in the Swedish Twin Registry born between 1926 and 1996 and alive in 2006. Information about dog ownership was available from 2001 to 2016 from national dog registers. The final data set included 85,542 twins from 50,507 twin pairs with known zygosity, where information on both twins were available in 35,035 pairs. Structural equation modeling was performed to estimate additive genetic effects (the heritability), common/shared environmental, and unique/non-shared environmental effects. We found that additive genetic factors largely contributed to dog ownership, with heritability estimated at 57% for females and 51% for males. An effect of shared environmental factors was only observed in early adulthood. In conclusion, we show a strong genetic contribution to dog ownership in adulthood in a large twin study. We see two main implications of this finding: (1) genetic variation may have contributed to our ability to domesticate dogs and other animals and (2) potential pleiotropic effects of genetic variation affecting dog ownership should be considered in studies examining health impacts of dog ownership.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of large genetic influences on dog ownership in the Swedish Twin Registry has implications for understanding domestication and health associations

Fall

Kuja‐Halkola

Dobney

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…At present, there is only one published study that used a genetically informative design to investigate genetic influence on a pet-related measure. This study found that self-reports of frequency of playing with pets among a middle-aged, male twin sample had a heritability of h 2 = 0.29–0.37, indicating that genetic factors, which are likely mediated through individual differences in personality and related traits, play a role in establishing bonds with pets ( Jacobson et al, 2012 ). Surprisingly, the effects of shared environmental influences, which would include childhood exposure to pets, accounted for less than 10% of the variance in pet play during adulthood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Associations Between Pet Ownership and Attitudes Toward Pets With Youth Socioemotional Outcomes

Jacobson

Chang

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Evidence regarding the effects of pet ownership and related variables on youth socioemotional development is mixed. Inconsistencies across studies may be due to a variety of factors, including the use of different outcomes measured across studies, small potential effect sizes, and use of selected samples. In addition, studies have not systematically controlled for demographic characteristics that may bias results, nor have studies systematically examined whether effects are consistent across different subgroups. The present study examined the impact of pet ownership and attitudes toward pets on four measures of youth socioemotional outcomes: delinquency, depressed mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Linear mixed-effect regression analyses were conducted on 342 youth (48.0% male) aged 9–19 (M = 14.05, SD = 1.77) from a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample. The majority (59.1%) of youth currently lived with a dog or cat and all participants completed the Pet Attitude Scale-Modified. Pet owners reported lower delinquency and higher empathy than non-owners; however, group differences became non-significant once demographic factors were controlled for. Attitudes toward pets was significantly associated with all four outcomes. More positive attitudes was modestly associated with lower delinquency (β = -0.22, p < 0.001) and higher empathy (β = 0.31, p < 0.001), with smaller effects for depressed mood (β = -0.12, p = 0.04) and prosocial behavior (β = 0.12, p = 0.02). For delinquency, empathy, and prosocial behavior, effects were only slightly attenuated and remained statistically significant after controlling for gender, age, race/ethnicity, family socioeconomic status, and pet ownership, although the effect for depressed mood became non-significant after inclusion of these demographic factors. While there was some variability in effect sizes across different subgroups, none of the interactions between attitudes toward pets and gender, race/ethnicity, age, family SES, or pet ownership was statistically significant, indicating that the effects may transcend individual differences in demographic characteristics. Overall, the study adds to a growing body of work supporting a positive relationship between emotional bonds with pets and youth socioemotional outcomes and offers potential explanations for inconsistencies across previous studies.

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“…However, it is also possible that there are genetically-influenced characteristics, such as human personality traits, which are shared between parents and children and may be related to attitudes and attachment to pets. A recent behavioral genetic study using adult male twin pairs reported that the heritability of frequency of play with pets in adulthood was as high as 0.37 and that residual effects of shared environmental factors (which would include childhood exposure to pets) were weak and not statistically significant (Jacobson, Hoffman, Vasilopoulos, Kremen, Panizzon, Grant, Lyons, Xian, & Franz, in press). Consequently, caution should be used when interpreting causality in future extensions of this research that may explore associations between attachment to dogs and individual differences in human socio-emotional well-being.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Dog Behavioral Characteristics Predict the Quality of the Relationship between Dogs and Their Owners?

Hoffman¹,

Pan²,

Serpell³

et al. 2013

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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This paper explores whether dog behavioral characteristics predict the quality of the relationship between dogs and their owners (i.e., owner attachment to dog), and whether relations between dog behavior and owner attachment are moderated by demographic characteristics. In this study, N = 92 children and N = 60 adults from 60 dog-owning families completed questionnaires about their attachment to their pet dog, their level of responsibility for that dog, and their general attitudes toward pets. They also rated their dogs on observable behavioral characteristics. Individuals who held positive attitudes about pets and who provided much of their dog's care reported stronger attachments to their dogs. The strength of owners' attachments to their dogs was associated with dog trainability and separation problems. Relationships between owner attachment and both dog excitability and attention-seeking behavior were further moderated by demographic characteristics: for Caucasians but not for non-Caucasians, dog excitability was negatively associated with owner attachment to dog; and for adults, dog attention-seeking behavior was positively associated with owner attachment, but children tended to be highly attached to their dogs, regardless of their dogs' attention-seeking behaviors. This study demonstrates that certain dog behavioral traits are indeed associated with the strength of owners' attachments to their dogs. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptContributing to the literature on for whom and under what conditions dog ownership is beneficial to humans, this paper explores whether dog behavioral characteristics are predictive of the quality of the relationship between dogs and their owners (i.e., owner attachment to dog), and whether relations between dog behavior and owner attachment are the same across genders, ages, and races/ethnicities. The effects of dog behavior and owner demographics on owner attachment to dog might elucidate why some studies suggest that pet ownership can be beneficial to human health (Barker & Wolen, 2008;Cutt, Giles-Corti, Knuiman, & Burke, 2007;El-Alayli, Lystad, Webb, Hollingsowrth, & Ciolli, 2006;Friedmann & Son, 2009;Headey & Grabka, 2011;O'Haire, 2010;Wells, 2009), while others have failed to detect such positive findings (for a review, see Herzog, 2011). An important distinction between studies that have reported beneficial health effects of humananimal interactions (HAI) and those that have not is that the latter have all focused specifically on pet ownership as the primary predictor and not on attachment to or attitudes toward pets. Evidence indicates that the stress-reducing benefits of HAI are moderated by attachments to companion animals (Garrity, Stallones, Marx, & Johnson, 1989;Sable, 1995), and interaction with a dog lowers cardiovascular stress reactivity for individuals with positive attitudes toward dogs but increases stress reactivity for individuals with negative attitudes toward dogs (Friedmann, Zuck Locker, & Lockwood, 1990). Such findings indicate that the benefits of HA...

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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Individual Differences in Frequency of Play with Pets among Middle-Aged Men: A Behavioral Genetic Analysis

Cited by 7 publications

References 97 publications

Evidence of large genetic influences on dog ownership in the Swedish Twin Registry has implications for understanding domestication and health associations

Evidence of large genetic influences on dog ownership in the Swedish Twin Registry has implications for understanding domestication and health associations

Associations Between Pet Ownership and Attitudes Toward Pets With Youth Socioemotional Outcomes

Do Dog Behavioral Characteristics Predict the Quality of the Relationship between Dogs and Their Owners?

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