Understanding the Human—Cat Relationship: Human Social Support or Attachment

The goal of this study was to assess whether the widespread popularity of cats can best be explained using either attachment theory or social support theory. To assess the degree of attachment to the cat, and the size of the human social support network, we used five different questionnaires: In a first mailing we sent the LAPS (Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale) questionnaire (Garrity et al. 1989) and the SSQ6 (Social Support Questionnaire; Sarason et al. 1983, 1987) to 370 women volunteering to participate in the study. Three hundred and forty and 330 women respectively, returned correctly completed questionnaires. In a second mailing we sent these participants the NSSQ (Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire; Norbeck et al. 1981, 1983) and two questionnaires by Bradshaw and Limond (1997), one assessing attachment to the cat (BrAtt), the other emotional support from the cat (BrES). Of these, 290, 295, and 293, respectively, were correctly completed and returned. We found a positive correlation between the results of the two attachment scales (LAPS and BrAtt) and between the numbers of people (significant others) listed by the participants in the two social support scales (SSQ6 and NSSQ). Attachment to the cat assessed with the LAPS correlated negatively with the number of significant human others in the SSQ6 and NSSQ. It also correlated negatively with both emotional and tangible human support, two subscales of social support assessed in the NSSQ. The number of people in the household, determined independently of the social support questionnaires, correlated negatively with both attachment scales (BrAtt and LAPS), but there was no significant correlation with the number of significant others listed in the NSSQ or SSQ6. The number of children in the household, also assessed independently, correlated negatively with the LAPS but showed no significant correlation with the BrAtt scale. Overall our results indicate that for some participants, cats may substitute for persons in the social network. In most cases, however, cats appear to be an additional source of emotional support, especially for those participants who are strongly attached to their animals. We conclude that both attachment and social support are at work in these human—cat relationships, and that the relative importance of each depends upon the individual person.