In recent years, Korea has an increasing number of single-person households and people rearing companion animals. However, studies related to single-person households and companion animal rearing are insufficient compared to advanced countries. It is ...
In recent years, Korea has an increasing number of single-person households and people rearing companion animals. However, studies related to single-person households and companion animal rearing are insufficient compared to advanced countries. It is expected to increase worldwide. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the effect of the rearing of companion animals in a single household on resilience, focusing on physical health, psychological health, and social support. Accordingly, surveys were collected and analyzed for 131 single Korean households classified as adults under the civil law and who live without a domestic partner in a private residential space or live with companion animals for more than 1 month.
A frequency analysis was performed to determine the general
matters of the subjects participating in this study, and a reliability test (Cronbach's Alpha test) was conducted to determine the internal consistency of each variable. T-tests were conducted to analyze the differences in physical health, psychological health, social support, and resilience, depending on whether companion animals were reared, and correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between physical health, psychological health, and social support. Finally, a regression analysis was conducted to determine the factors influencing the effect of rearing companion animals and resilience.
The results of the study, according to statistical analysis, are as follows. First, there was no difference in physical health due to analyzing differences in physical health, psychological health, social support, and resilience according to whether a single householder raises companion animals. In terms of psychological health, companion animal caregivers showed a higher average in all items than those without companion animals. In particular, companion animal caregivers showed higher psychological health than those without pet caregivers in environmental control, personal growth, and self-acceptance. There was no significant difference in social support overall. There was no significant difference overall in social support. Still, due to dividing social support into family, friends, and co-workers, significant differences were found in all sub-factors(information support, emotional support, material support, and evaluation support) in the friend group. In terms of recovery resilience, companion animal caregivers' average value was higher than that of non-companion
animal caregivers, and especially, companion animal caregivers showed higher results in impulse control, life satisfaction, optimism, communication ability, and empathy than those who did not. Second, as a result of conducting a correlation analysis to find out the relationship between the physical health, psychological health, and social support of the companion animal rearer of a single householder and the non-rearing companion animals, in the sample of the companion animal rearer, physical health has a significant positive correlation with psychological health. And it was confirmed that there was a significant positive correlation between social support and resilience. It was also confirmed that there was a significant positive correlation between the psychological health and social support of companion animals, and there was a significant positive correlation between psychological health and resilience. Finally, it was confirmed that there was a significant positive correlation between companion animals' social support and resilience. In the sample of non-rearing companion animals, it was confirmed that physical health had a significant positive correlation with psychological health, and there was a significant positive correlation with social support and resilience. It was also confirmed that there was a significant positive correlation between psychological health and social support of non-rearing companion animals, and there was also a significant positive correlation between psychological health and resilience. Finally, it was confirmed that there was a significant positive correlation between social support and non-rearing companion
animals' resilience. Third, as a result of conducting a regression analysis to determine the factors influencing the effects of rearing companion animals (physical health, psychological health, social support) and resilience, the effect of rearing companion animals on physical health was not significant. And the effect on psychological health, social support, and social support(friends) was found to be significant. As a result of the regression analysis between companion animal rearing and resilience, a strong influence was shown on psychological health. Physical health and social support did not affect. The regression analysis results between non-rearing companion animals and resilience showed a strong influence on psychological health and social support and low physical health influence. As a result of the regression analysis between the rearing of companion animals and resilience, psychological well-being and social support, and the rearing of companion animals had a significant effect on resilience. Through this study, the positive effects that a single householder can obtain from rearing companion animals and basic data to determine the psychological characteristics of a single householder are presented. If the category segmentation and qualitative research of companion animals are carried out together, it is expected that it will create a basis for raising a single household and companion animals.