Comparative study of stress levels between pet owners and non-pet owners

Pages: 1055-1057
Pallavi Sane (Consulting Psychologist, Department of Clinical Psychology Fergusson College, Pune, Maharashtra)
Anil Sawarkar (Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Fergusson College, Pune, Maharashtra)

Research shows that there are many positive benefits of having pets, the present study attempts to validate and explore whether pets will be able to reduce stress. This being the foundation, the present study is thus conducted. The present study is aimed at finding the difference of stress levels between pet owners and non-pet owners. Smith Stress Symptoms Inventory was administered to a sample of 160 individuals, 80 pet owners and 80 non-pet owners consisting of 40 males and 40 females in each group. The age range selected was from 20years up to 60years with the socio-economic status of over 5 lakhs per annum and above. The sample obtained was from working class. The obtained data was subjected to two-way ANOVA. The results indicated that pet owners had lower levels of stress as compared to non-pet owners as well as the study also showed that gender did not contribute to stress. The non-pet owners showed a high score on dimensions of worry/negative emotions, anxiety, depression, striated muscle tension, interpersonal conflict and attention deficit, indicating higher levels of stress. The study was divided into qualitative and quantitative data. For qualitative data 15 pet owners were interviewed based on a structured interview questionnaire.