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Not every child who grows up with a pet reaps the benefits parents hope for. New research shows exactly why, and what you need to do differently.
Not every child who grows up with a pet reaps the benefits parents hope for. New research shows exactly why, and what you need to do differently.
Most parents weighing up whether to get their child a pet have already heard about the benefits.
Pets teach responsibility. They help children develop empathy. They offer companionship during the difficult years. Nobody really questions any of this - it gets passed down from one generation to the next as a parenting given, and most families act on it without looking too closely at whether it is actually true.
However, research published between 2021 and 2026 tells a more complicated story. Whether a pet benefits a child turns out to depend on four things that most parents tend not to consider: the species of animal, the child's age, what kind of daily interaction the child actually has with the animal, and the existing stress level in the household.
Get those four things right, and the research supports the idea that getting a pet really is good for your child's development. Get them wrong, though, and the evidence suggests that a pet can, in certain circumstances, make things harder, not easier, for you and your child.
So for every parent asking the question of whether they should get a pet to help their children, here is what the science actually says.
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