Pet Attachment and Generativity Among Young Adults

Attachment to pets and generativity (concern for the next generation) may be positively correlated in young adulthood in that both involve nurturance. To test the hypothesis that pet attachment and generativity are related, we administered two relatively new instruments, the Pet Attachment Survey (PAS; Holcomb, Williams & Richards, 1985) and the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS; McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992), in addition to the Pet Attitude Inventory (Wilson, Netting, & New, 1987) and demographic questions to 179 young university students. Students who did not own pets answered 12 questions taken from the Pet Attitude Inventory. Pet owners' attachment scores were significantly and positively correlated with their generativity scores, as we had predicted. These and other findings concerning gender, age, and being primary caregivers of pets contribute to the ongoing validation of both the PAS and the LGS.