Grieving Pet Death: Normative, Gender, and Attachment Issues
Grief over the loss of a pet was investigated to clarify the usual course of symptoms experienced, gender differences in the experience, and the role of attachment to the pet. The sample included 174 adults who had lost a pet dog or cat to death. Participants were administered a modified CENSHARE Pe...
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Published in | Omega: Journal of Death and Dying Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 385 - 393 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Los Angeles, CA
SAGE Publications
01.12.2003
Sage Publications Ltd |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Grief over the loss of a pet was investigated to clarify the usual course of symptoms experienced, gender differences in the experience, and the role of attachment to the pet. The sample included 174 adults who had lost a pet dog or cat to death. Participants were administered a modified CENSHARE Pet Attachment Survey (Holcomb, Williams, & Richards, 1985) and a survey of symptoms experienced. Results indicate that initially 85.7% of owners experienced at least one symptom of grief, but the occurrence decreased to 35.1% at six months and to 22.4% at one year. Males and females reported significantly different rates on six of 12 symptoms surveyed. The severity and length of symptoms is significantly correlated with the degree of attachment to the deceased pet. These findings indicate that pet loss can be a potential area of clinical concern, especially if the person's attachment to the pet was strong. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0030-2228 1541-3764 |
DOI: | 10.2190/QYV5-LLJ1-T043-U0F9 |