ABSTRACT There is growing evidence that pet ownership and human–animal interaction (HAI) have benefits for human physical and psychological well-being. However, there may be pre-existing characteristics related to patterns of pet ownership and interactions with pets that could potentially bias results of research on HAI. The present study uses a behavioral genetic design to estimate the degree to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in frequency of play with pets among adult men. Participants were from the ongoing longitudinal Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA), a population-based sample of 1,237 monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins aged 51–60 years. Results demonstrate that MZ twins have higher correlations than DZ twins on frequency of pet play, suggesting that genetic factors play a role in individual differences in interactions with pets. Structural equation modeling revealed that, according to the best model, genetic factors accounted for as much as 37% of the variance in pet play, although the majority of variance (63–71%) was due to environmental factors that are unique to each twin. Shared environmental factors, which would include childhood exposure to pets, overall accounted for <10% of the variance in adult frequency of pet play, and were not statistically significant. These results suggest that the effects of childhood exposure to pets on pet ownership and interaction patterns in adulthood may be mediated primarily by genetically-influenced characteristics.

中文翻译：

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遗传和环境对中年男性与宠物玩耍频率个体差异的影响：行为遗传分析


摘要 越来越多的证据表明，养宠物和人与动物的互动 (HAI) 对人类的身心健康有益。然而，可能存在与宠物饲养模式以及与宠物互动相关的预先存在的特征，这些特征可能会导致 HAI 研究结果出现偏差。本研究使用行为遗传设计来估计遗传和环境因素对成年男性与宠物玩耍频率的个体差异的影响程度。参与者来自正在进行的纵向越南时代双胞胎衰老研究 (VETSA)，该研究以人口为基础，样本包括 1,237 名年龄在 51-60 岁的同卵 (MZ) 和异卵 (DZ) 双胞胎。结果表明，同卵双胞胎比同卵双胞胎与宠物玩耍的频率具有更高的相关性，这表明遗传因素在与宠物互动的个体差异中发挥了作用。结构方程模型显示，根据最佳模型，遗传因素占宠物玩耍差异的 37%，尽管大部分差异 (63-71%) 是由双胞胎独有的环境因素造成的。共同的环境因素（包括童年时期接触宠物）总体上解释了成年宠物玩耍频率差异的 <10%，但在统计上并不显着。这些结果表明，童年接触宠物对成年后养宠物和互动模式的影响可能主要是由遗传影响的特征介导的。