飼主對寵物的依附關係與寂寞感、憂鬱情緒之探討

The Relationship among Pet Owner's Attachment, Loneliness and Depression

臺灣社會面臨少子化、高齡社會的趨勢，外加壓力來源、人際關係間多重影響之結果，形塑了寂寞產業的崛起，也讓飼養寵物犬成為人們情感依附、心靈寄託的新對象，然相關研究卻付之闕如，同樣地，對寵物犬飼主之寂寞感與憂鬱情緒亦鮮少受到討論。因此瞭解飼主對寵物之情感依附與寂寞感、憂鬱情緒的關係，除了可深入瞭解現況，亦可將結果提供給動物輔助治療相關單位參考。因此，本研究主要目的為探討飼主對寵物的情感依附情形及其與寂寞感、憂鬱情緒間之關係。研究依據相關文獻設計結構式問卷，在寵物用品展覽會場與寵物餐廳進行問卷調查，採便利取樣方式，共回收242份有效問卷，透過SPSS 17.0版本進行描述性統計、信效度分析與結構方程模式分析。研究結果顯示，受訪的飼主樣本對寵物犬的依附關係高，其中次構面「責任感」的平均值最高（M=4.45），「情感面」其次（M=4.35），顯示受訪者普遍具有正確的飼養觀念；研究同時發現飼主的寂寞感與憂鬱情緒普遍多偏低，顯示受訪飼主的負面情緒較少；研究最後發現依附關係顯著影響寂寞感與憂鬱情緒。本研究依研究結果發現，提出建議供相關單位及後續研究者參考。

Taiwan society has faced the problem of low birth rate and aging. Furthermore, daily life stress and urban interpersonal relationship worsen this situation. As a result, the lonely-relieving industry rises rapidly and the companion pet became lonely people's spiritual attachment. The research about the benefit of companion pet keeping is quite rare. Moreover, those researches are insufficient in realizing the loneliness and depression state. Therefore, depicting the relationship among the attachment, loneliness, and depression state of the pet owners will lead us not only to understand the problem, but also provide references for animal-assisted therapy organizations. For this reason, the aim of this research is to investigate the relationship among the spiritual attachment, loneliness and depression of the companion dog owner. This research examined the data by adopting the questionnaire established from literature review. The survey sample was chosen in pet accessories festivals and pet restaurants. Two hundred and fourth two valid samples were interviewed. The data was analyzed by the Descriptive and Reliability analysis of SPSS 17.0. The results showed that the pet owner shows a high attachment to their companion dog. Additionally, their feeling of loneliness and depression were generally low. In conclusion, the attachment between owner and their companion dog does significantly release loneliness and depression of pet owners. Suggestions and further research were also discussed for pet managing organizations.