Depression and Subjective Well-Being as Predictors of Pet Owner University Students' Personality Traits

The pet ownership has a crucial role in individuals' lives, which offers many beneficial effects. By examining the relationship between pet ownership and owners' well-being, researchers have found that pets typically made their owners feel well. This study examines the ways in which pet owners' depression and subjective well-being levels predict their personality traits. It also aims to examine the relationship between these variables and of the participants' pet preferences. Totally, 307 pet owners participated in this study; all participants were university students living in Turkey. In addition, all participants were aged 18 and older. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was used to determine the depression levels of the participants; the Subjective Well-Being Scale (SWBS) was used to determine their subjective well-being levels, and an Abbreviated Form Of The Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A) was used to determine personality traits. Data was analyzed using path analysis. The study found that pet owners' depression and subjective wellbeing scores predicted their neuroticism and extraversion scores. Subjective well-being and depression predict neuroticism and extroversion in personality traits, and goodness of fit index of this model has been found to be at acceptable levels. It is important to conduct more experimental and correlational studies involving the same variables; these studies may focus on pet owners, as well as their difference with those who do not own pets. They may also focus on specific age groups, such as children, adults, and the elderly.