Aim

1. To find out what role pets play in preadolescent psychosocial development.
2. In particular, to see whether children who own a pet differ from children who do not on autonomy, self-concept and self-esteem.

Procedure

1. There were 130 children in grades 3 to 6 at a Midwestern University grade school, drawn from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds.
2. The children were matched by grade and by whether or not they owned a pet, so each comparison was between similar children.
3. Autonomy, self-concept and self-esteem were each measured by questionnaire, 20 items for autonomy and 22 for self-concept, autonomy meaning how independent and self-directing the child had become.
4. Attachment to animals was also measured on a 7-point scale, reworded hypothetically for the children who did not own a pet.

What the results showed

1. Autonomy is scored inversely on this measure, which means that a lower mean score indicates greater autonomy.
2. Pet owners showed greater autonomy than non-owners across the grades.
3. Self-esteem was higher in fifth- and sixth-grade pet owners, and self-concept differences appeared in the fourth and sixth grades.
4. Attachment to animals was not significant.

What the researchers concluded

1. Pets appear to play a role in preadolescent psychosocial development, with the clearest and most consistent difference showing in autonomy.
2. Since attachment to animals made no significant difference, the benefit may come from a pet's presence rather than from being attached to it.
3. On that basis the researchers proposed pets as a possible way of supporting children with low self-esteem.

Strengths

1. A strength is that owners and non-owners were matched by grade and by ownership, which reduces the chance that the two groups differed for some unrelated reason.
2. A second strength is that the findings have a clear real-world application, because suggesting pets as support for low self-esteem is something families and schools could act on.

Weaknesses

1. A weakness is that the study is correlational, so it cannot show that pets cause the stronger psychosocial development.
2. A second weakness is that every measure was self-report, so the results depend on how accurately the children described themselves.

Turning this into marks

1. Name Van Houtte and Jarvis and give the sample as 130 children in grades 3 to 6.
2. State the scoring direction before you interpret the autonomy means, because a lower mean shows greater autonomy.
3. The mark most often lost is giving the findings without saying what the researchers concluded from them.