A Summary of my Bachelor Research Work: The Influence of the Pet (the Dog) on the Self-esteem and Loneliness of Seniors Living Alone in Their Homes

Introduction: According to Depp and Jeste (2006), on average, only 35.8% of individuals aged 60 and more are aging successfully. One of the problems associated with advancing in age is isolation, generated by the physical, psychological, cognitive and socio-professional changes that lead to this advancement in age, and that can lead to a feeling of loneliness (Bensadon 2006 ; Dykstra & al., 2005 ; Pitaud, 2004), itself negatively affecting the self-esteem of older adults (Robins, 2002).To cope with this isolation and / or loneliness, some people have chosen to have a pet. Since pets are living creatures interacting with their owners, they are, according to Garrity and Stallones (1998), “a type of nonhuman social support that can bring benefits in terms of behavior and health of their human partner. human partner “(p.5). Compared with other types of pets, the dog appears to have a greater positive effect on the senior’s level of self-esteem and perceived loneliness (Corson & Corson 1980 ; Raina & al. 1999, Serpell 1991 ; Siegel 1990 ; Staats & al., 1999 ; Stallones & al., 1990). The main purpose of this study was to explore how the dog and the age of the elderly person were related to their level of self-esteem and loneliness.Method and Participants: The sample in this study consisted of 25 subjects (men and women) aged 61 to 92, all living alone at home. 13 of them had a dog and 12 did not have one. It should be noted that the subjects having no dog did not own any other pet. The sample was divided into 2 groups: “dog”, for dog owners and “non-dog” for non-dog owners. Each subject completed a self-esteem assessment questionnaire (Rosenberg Scale, 1965) and a loneliness assessment questionnaire, based on the Bensadon Scale (2006) and on the the Local Information and Coordination Center Scale of Billom area (CLIC Billom, nd.) Then, a two-way ANOVA (Variance Analysis) was conducted to assess the influence of the dog and the dog / age interaction on the level, self-esteem and loneliness in both groups.Results: Higher self-esteem and lower loneliness were found in the “dog” group. In addition, there was a negative correlation between loneliness and self-esteem in both groups.On the other hand, there was no significant linear relationship between the “age” and “self-esteem” variables; “Age” and “loneliness”; “Age / dog interaction” and self-esteem and “age / dog interaction” and “loneliness”.Discussion: The results confirmed those mentioned in the literature regarding the positive influence of the pet on self-esteem (Hecht & al., 2001 ; Kidd & Feldman, 1981) and the loneliness of the elderly (Bonduelle & Joublin, 1995 ; Stammbach & Turner, 1999).Our results also confirmed those mentioned in the literature, with regard to the lowering of self-esteem, along with the increase in the level of loneliness (Alaphilippe & Bailly, 2013).In contrast, the advancement in age, along with the dog / age interaction, do not appear to have a significant influence on the seniors’ level of self-esteem and loneliness, thus questioning the results Robins (2002), who points to a decline in self-esteem related to advancing age and those of Bensadon (2006), Dykstra et al. (2005) and Pitaud (2004) for whom loneliness increases with age. These differences in results can perhaps be explained by the small size of our sample (N = 25).The interest of this research thus lies in the importance of considering older people and their needs more in an aging general population (INSEE, 2012), to whom are often wrongly attributed illnesses such as depression, loneliness, and other psychological manifestations, to logical consequences of aging, and which therefore are often trivialized, ignored or not even expressed by the subjects, even though they concern a significant part of this population (Lleshi & Bizzozzero 2009 ; WHO, 2013).

Key words: self-esteem, isolation, loneliness, elderly person, dog.