Loss of a pet can potentially trigger mental health issues in children


Date:
September 10, 2020
Source:
Massachusetts General Hospital
Summary:
The death of a family pet can trigger a sense of grief in children
that is profound and prolonged, and can potentially lead to
subsequent mental health issues.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The death of a family pet can trigger a sense of grief in children that
is profound and prolonged, and can potentially lead to subsequent mental
health issues, according to a new study by researchers at Massachusetts
General Hospital (MGH). In a paper appearing in European Child &
Adolescent Psychiatry, the team found that the strong emotional attachment
of youngsters to pets might result in measurable psychological distress
that can serve as an indicator of depression in children and adolescents
for as long as three years or more after the loss of a beloved pet.


==========================================================================
"One of the first major losses a child will encounter is likely to be the
death of a pet, and the impact can be traumatic, especially when that
pet feels like a member of the family," says Katherine Crawford, CGC, previously with the Center for Genomic Medicine at MGH, and lead author
of the study. "We found this experience of pet death is often associated
with elevated mental health symptoms in children, and that parents
and physicians need to recognize and take those symptoms seriously, not
simply brush them off." Roughly half of households in developed countries
own at least one pet. And as the MGH investigators reported, the bonds
that children form with pets can resemble secure human relationships in
terms of providing affection, protection and reassurance. What's more,
previous studies have shown that children often turn to pets for comfort
and to voice their fears and emotional experiences.

While the increased empathy, self-esteem and social competence that often
flow from this interaction is clearly beneficial, the downside is the
exposure of children to the death of a pet which, the MGH study found,
occurs with 63 percent of children with pets during their first seven
years of life.

Prior research has focused on the attachment of adults to pets and the consequences of an animal's death. The MGH team is the first to examine
mental health responses in children. Their analysis is based on a sample
of 6,260 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), in Bristol, England. This population-based sample is replete
with data collected from mothers and children that enabled researchers
to track the experience of pet ownership and pet loss from a child's
early age up to eight years.

"Thanks to this cohort, we were able to analyze the mental and emotional
health of children after examining their experiences with pet death over
an extended period," notes Erin Dunn, ScD, MPH, with the MGH Center for
Genomic Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, and senior author of the
study. "And we observed that the association between exposure to a pet's
death and psychopathology symptoms in childhood occurred regardless of
the child's socio-economic status or hardships they had already endured
in their young lives." Researchers also learned that the relationship
between pet death and increased psychopathology was more pronounced in
male than female children -- a finding that surprised them in light of
prior research -- and that the strength of the association was independent
of when the pet's death occurred during childhood, and how many times or
how recently it occurred. According to Dunn, this latter finding speaks
to "the durability of the bond with pets that is formed at a very early
age, and how it can affect children across their development." The MGH
study stressed the importance of parents, caregivers and pediatricians recognizing and taking seriously the short- and long-term psychological reactions of children to the death of a pet -- reactions which can mimic a child's response to the loss of other important family members. "Adults
need to pay attention to whether those feelings are deeper and more
profound and if they're lasting longer than might have been expected,"
says Crawford. "They could be signs of complicated grief and having
someone to talk to in a sympathetic or therapeutic way may be extremely
helpful for a child who is grieving."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Massachusetts_General_Hospital. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Katherine M. Crawford, Yiwen Zhu, Kathryn A. Davis, Samantha Ernst,
Kristina Jacobsson, Kristen Nishimi, Andrew D. A. C. Smith, Erin
C. Dunn.

The mental health effects of pet death during childhood:
is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2020; DOI:
10.1007/s00787-020-01594-5 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200910130412.htm

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