ABSTRACT Pets live in nearly two-thirds of US households and are thought to increase wellbeing. However, previous research is mixed regarding the extent to which pets actually provide benefits. One understudied factor that may help clarify these findings is pet preference, or the extent to which a person prefers dogs and cats, and how that preference aligns with the presence of the pet in the home. As such, across two studies (ns = 142; 264) the current research sought to evaluate if pet preference–pet presence alignment was related to self-reported depression symptoms, and explore a potential underlying factor associated with these relationships: personality. Although the importance of pet preference–pet presence alignment on depression appeared relatively pronounced in study 1, it was weaker in study 2 and thus the findings are only suggestive but act as a call for future research on pet preference–pet presence alignment. However, both studies replicated previous findings suggesting that extraversion was related to a preference for dogs over cats and raised concerns about the expected relationship between extraversion and depression. Overall, the findings highlight the need for further research on pet preference–pet presence alignment to better understand the effects pets have on mental health and wellbeing.

中文翻译：

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探索宠物偏好、存在和个性对抑郁症状的影响

摘要 宠物生活在近三分之二的美国家庭中，被认为可以提高幸福感。然而，关于宠物实际提供益处的程度，先前的研究喜忧参半。一个可能有助于澄清这些发现的未充分研究的因素是宠物偏好，或者一个人喜欢狗和猫的程度，以及这种偏好如何与家中宠物的存在保持一致。因此，在两项研究 (ns = 142; 264) 中，当前的研究试图评估宠物偏好 - 宠物存在对齐是否与自我报告的抑郁症状相关，并探索与这些关系相关的潜在潜在因素：个性。尽管在研究 1 中宠物偏好 - 宠物存在对齐对抑郁症的重要性似乎相对明显，它在研究 2 中较弱，因此这些发现只是暗示性的，但可以作为未来关于宠物偏好 - 宠物存在对齐的研究的呼吁。然而，这两项研究都重复了之前的研究结果，表明外向性与偏爱狗而不是猫有关，并引发了对外向性和抑郁症之间预期关系的担忧。总体而言，研究结果强调需要进一步研究宠物偏好 - 宠物存在对齐，以更好地了解宠物对心理健康和幸福的影响。