A daily diary study on adolescent-pet play and positive well-being

Pet ownership has been shown to support individual well-being, yet less is known about how frequency and the extent of daily adolescent-pet play contributes to adolescents' positive well-being. This study used 30-day diary reports from 107 US adolescents (M_age = 14.75; 58.9% male), assessing adolescent-pet play, subjective well-being, and psychological well-being on a daily basis. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) and multilevel modeling (MLM) were conducted to examine the associations of frequency and the extent of adolescent-pet play with adolescents' positive well-being, respectively, controlling for participants' demographic and other relevant information. Results indicated that adolescents who consistently had the opportunity to play with their pets reported greater subjective well-being. Moreover, adolescents with higher general levels of adolescent-pet play had higher levels of both subjective and psychological well-being. Similarly, on days when adolescents had higher-than-usual levels of adolescent-pet play, they also had higher levels of subjective and psychological well-being on the same day controlling for prior-day well-being. These findings highlight the importance of adolescent-pet play, particularly the extent of daily play, in adolescents' positive well-being. This study advances the literature by focusing on daily adolescent-pet play and suggests that pets may serve as a promising social resource positive well-being during adolescence.