Parental Alienation and Generalized Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents and Young People: The Moderating Role of Pet Attachment

The current study examined whether the association between parental alienation (mother/father/both parents) and young people’s Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) symptoms varies as a function of pet attachment. A further aim was to explore whether there are species-level differences in this moderating effect. Using data from 198 young pet owners (mean age 21.2 years) who completed online self-report questionnaires, the findings revealed that higher levels of parental alienation were associated with higher levels of GAD symptoms regardless of pet species. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed that attachment to dogs moderated the association between perceived alienation from both parents and GAD symptoms, whereas the same was not the case for cat attachment or when the parental alienation construct was analyzed separately for mothers and fathers. The findings highlight that attachment to dogs may serve as a protective factor in the link between parental alienation and young people’s GAD symptoms and thus may provide an important contribution to human psychological wellbeing. While these findings are encouraging, future studies should adopt longitudinal designs and investigate which specific pet attachment function benefits anxious young people.