Pets' roles in parents' bereavement

A sample of 43 mothers and 21 fathers completed a retrospective survey concerning a pet's involvement in adaptation to a child's death. Measures included degree of attachment to the pet, and perceptions of the pet's helpfulness and roles in the process of grief resolution. Most parents (75%) indicated that their pet was helpful. Positive pet roles-a distraction, a comfort, a confidant-were positively correlated with degree of attachment to pet. Negative pet roles burden, a scapegoat-were negatively correlated with pet attachment. However, the presence of surviving siblings was negatively correlated with judgments of pet helpfulness, social support roles, and pet bonding itself.