Twenty-three percent of homeless youth have pets, according to research from a team led by Harmony Rhoadesat the University of Southern California. The team surveyed 398 homeless youth at two drop-in centers in Los Angeles. While previous studies have shown that pets can be very important to homeless young people, this is the first quantitative study to look at pet ownership, mental health, and the use of services among this group.
Eighty-eight percent of the young people in the study had attended the drop-in for food during the previous month. Other services they had used included clothes (69 percent), job help (52 percent), housing (49 percent), and health services (47 percent). Of those with pets, dogs were most common (53 percent), followed by cats (22 percent). Other pets included a hamster, rat, chinchilla, and an iguana.
“Companion animals provide emotional support and represent important, loving relationships in the lives of many homeless youth,” the researchers write.
Pet owners had lower scores for loneliness and depression, and reported many benefits to having a pet. Eighty-five percent agreed that “my pet keeps me company,” 79 percent said the pet “makes me feel loved,” and 73 percent said the pet “makes me feel safe.”
[For more of this story, written by Zazie Todd, go to https://psmag.com/homeless-kid...7f738c73b#.whznopizq]
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