The relationship between dog ownership, dog play, family dog walking, and pre-schooler social–emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE observational study

Wenden, Elizabeth; Lester, Leanne; Zubrick, Stephen R.; Ng, Michelle; Christian, Hayley

doi:10.1038/s41390-020-1007-2

Cited by 26 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The PLAYCE study, conducted from 2015–2018, investigated early childhood education and care, home, and neighbourhood environment influences on pre-schoolers’ PA [ 20 ]. Parents in this study mostly had a partner (89%), had a postgraduate education (56%), and were in either fulltime or part-time employment (81%) [ 21 ]. Second, participants were also recruited from the general community using social media strategies through Facebook posts and word of mouth.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Western Australian Children’s Physical Activity and Screen Time

Nathan

George

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Physical activity is essential for children’s healthy development, yet COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions such as school closures and staying at home, playground closures, and the cancelling of organised community sport have dramatically altered children’s opportunities to be physically active. This study describes changes in levels of physical activity and screen time from February 2020 (i.e., before COVID-19 restrictions were introduced in Western Australia) to May 2020 (i.e., when COVID-19 restrictions were in place). Parents of children aged 5 to 9 years from Western Australia were eligible to participate and recruited through convenience sampling. An online survey instrument that included validated measures of their children’s physical activity (unstructured, organized, home-based, indoor/outdoor active play, dog play/walking), sociodemographic, and other potential confounders was administered to parents. Paired t-tests and mixed ANOVA models assessed changes in physical activity outcomes. The analytic sample comprised parents of 157 children who were 6.9 years of age (SD = 1.7) on average. Overall, weekly minutes of total physical activity (PA) did not change from before to during COVID-19. However, frequency and duration (total and home-based) of unstructured physical activity significantly increased. Outdoor play in the yard or street around the house, outdoor play in the park or playground or outdoor recreation area, and active indoor play at home all significantly increased. Frequency and total duration of organised physical activity significantly declined during COVID-19 distancing. During Western Australian COVID-19 restrictions, there was an increase in young children’s unstructured physical activity and outdoor play and a decrease in organised physical activity. It remains to be seen whether children’s increased physical activity has been sustained with the easing of physical distancing restrictions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Western Australian Children’s Physical Activity and Screen Time

Nathan

George

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…Pet ownership may also help children develop skills to form and maintain social relationships with their peers (96). For example, cross-sectional studies found that children with a pet dog in the home have fewer peer problems and have more prosocial behavior with children without a dog [e.g., (97,98)].…”

Section: Social Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dogs Supporting Human Health and Well-Being: A Biopsychosocial Approach

et al. 2021

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Humans have long realized that dogs can be helpful, in a number of ways, to achieving important goals. This is evident from our earliest interactions involving the shared goal of avoiding predators and acquiring food, to our more recent inclusion of dogs in a variety of contexts including therapeutic and educational settings. This paper utilizes a longstanding theoretical framework- the biopsychosocial model- to contextualize the existing research on a broad spectrum of settings and populations in which dogs have been included as an adjunct or complementary therapy to improve some aspect of human health and well-being. A wide variety of evidence is considered within key topical areas including cognition, learning disorders, neurotypical and neurodiverse populations, mental and physical health, and disabilities. A dynamic version of the biopsychosocial model is used to organize and discuss the findings, to consider how possible mechanisms of action may impact overall human health and well-being, and to frame and guide future research questions and investigations.

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“…Interactive play is considered one of the main benefits of interacting with dogs, together with going on walks (34,35), and interactive play with dogs seems to be particularly beneficial in promoting prosocial behavior in children (35). The frequency of other shared activities included in the MDORS, such as going with the owner to visit people and on car trips are more influenced by factors outside the relationship, including lifestyle preferences, the dog's dislike of travel or its inability to be left alone at times.…”

Section: Shared Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Value of Companion Dogs as a Source of Social Support for Their Owners: Findings From a Pre-pandemic Representative Sample and a Convenience Sample Obtained During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Spain

2021

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Dogs are a source of companionship and comfort for their owners, but the degree to which this might translate into real emotional and social support has not been quantified. Emotional and social support are essential to help people to get through personal crises such as bereavement. In this study we characterize the social support owners obtain from their dogs, provide evidence of how widespread this social support is amongst dog-owners, and show how social support from dogs can increase during a crisis (using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example). We collected data from a representative population-based sample of Spanish dog-owners and found that most respondents said that their dogs helped them to get through tough times. They got comfort from physical contact with their dogs, shared activities with them and treated them as confidants in a similar way to friends and family. These are all key aspects of social support, and dogs offer the advantage of being more available than human sources of support. It would be expected that the support that dogs provide would be increased during a time of personal crisis and when we looked at data collected from a convenience sample of Spanish dog-owners during the COVID-19 confinement that is what we found; during the confinement owners engaged in more shared activities with their dogs, hugged them more often and turned to them more as a source of companionship and comfort (p < 0.0001 in all cases). However, although owners did confide more in their dogs (p < 0.0001), the effect was not as great as for other aspects of social support. We suspect that this is because people were able to use telecommunications such as video conferencing to maintain their human confidant relationships. Our findings indicate that dogs can substitute for humans as sources of some kinds of social support when conventional sources are unavailable. Our conclusion is that where a dog is present in a household, it should be regarded as an important resource for social support. This should be considered when designing clinical interventions and when public health decisions are being made.

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The relationship between dog ownership, dog play, family dog walking, and pre-schooler social–emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE observational study

Cited by 26 publications

References 30 publications

Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Western Australian Children’s Physical Activity and Screen Time

Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Western Australian Children’s Physical Activity and Screen Time

Dogs Supporting Human Health and Well-Being: A Biopsychosocial Approach

The Value of Companion Dogs as a Source of Social Support for Their Owners: Findings From a Pre-pandemic Representative Sample and a Convenience Sample Obtained During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Spain

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