摘要
寵物越趨普遍地出現在許多的家庭中，他們在家庭生活中的重要性也隨著出生人口的減少而日漸增加。眾多研究已探討了寵物對心理健康的益處，然而針對寵物過世對心理健康影響的文獻卻相對較少。本研究串聯了四波台灣青少年成長歷程研究追蹤調查之資料，探討寵物過世對於高中與大學階段青少年心理健康的影響。在實證方法上，本研究採用Callaway和Sant’Anna (2021) 提出的雙重差分法，以避免在多個事件發生時間點的情況下，使用傳統固定效果模型在估計可能造成的偏誤。實證結果發現，相對未經歷寵物過世的青少年，經歷寵物過世的青少年感到孤獨的機率平均增加約七個百分點，而此效果在寵物過世約兩年後尤為明顯。透過與父母親或其他親人去世的效果比較，我們發現寵物過世對孤獨感的影響程度接近雙親去世的一半，且高於其他親人去世的效果。此外，異質性分析的結果顯示，男性在經歷寵物過世後，感到孤獨機會上升的幅度相對女性較高，而沒有與家人同住的人受到的影響則高於與家人同住者。最後，我們並未發現經歷寵物過世對學業表現存在顯著關聯。
並列摘要
Pet ownership is becoming increasingly common in today's society. Many studies have investigated the benefits of pets on mental health. However, there is very limited research on the potential adverse impacts when experiencing the death of a pet. Using the survey data from the Taiwan Youth Project, this study explores the impacts of pet loss on adolescents’ mental health. We apply the difference-in-differences method proposed by Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021) to address the estimation bias from using two-way fixed effects models with multiple time periods. The results show that, on average, the likelihood of feeling lonely for adolescents who have experienced pet loss increases by seven percentage points, and this effect is mostly driven by males and those who do not live with their families. We also find that the effect of pet loss on loneliness is nearly half that of parental bereavement and larger than that of any nonparental bereavement. However, there is no evidence showing that pet loss increases the likelihood of other distresses such as feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts. Lastly, we do not find an association between pet loss and academic performance, as measured by interviewees’ college entrance exam scores.
參考文獻
Literature in Chinese
台經院. (2022, October 7). 2023年寵物市場發展趨勢分析. Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://www.tier.org.tw/comment/tiermon1000.aspx?GUID=2038c655-0e4b-4ed6-bcb1-5c95af7484d0
財政部統計處. (2022). 寵物統計研究. Retrieved July 7, 2023, from https://service.mof.gov.tw/public/Data/statistic/bulletin/112/%E7%AC%AC3%E8%99%9F-%E5%AF%B5%E7%89%A9.pdf
Literature in English
Banks, M. R., & Banks, W. A. (2002). The effects of animal-assisted therapy on loneliness in an elderly population in long-term care facilities. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 57(7), M428-M432.