Children's drawings and attachment to pets.
To help confirm the concept that distances placed between the self and other figures in children's drawings represent emotional distances, 242 pet-owning and 35 nonpet-owning kindergartners through eighth graders drew pictures of themselves, a pet, and/or a family member. Owners drew pets significantly closer than family-figures although the younger the child, the greater the distance between self and pet. Older children drew themselves holding pets significantly more often, but younger children placed the family-figure between the self and the pet significantly more often. There were no significant gender differences in self-figure/pet-figure distances, but cats, dogs, caged animals, and farm animals were placed significantly closer to self-figures than were fish. Over-all, owners were clearly emotionally closer to pets than to family members, but nonowners were as close emotionally to family members as were owners.
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Center for Animals in Society, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California-Davis, USA.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D001154:Art; D002415:Cats; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004285:Dogs; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012649:Self Concept