Understanding the Human—Cat Relationship: Human Social Support or Attachment

ABSTRACTThe goal of this study was to assess whether the widespread popularity of cats can best be explained using either attachment theory or social support theory. To assess the degree of attachment to the cat, and the size of the human social support network, we used five different questionnaires: In a first mailing we sent the LAPS (Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale) questionnaire (Garrity et al. 1989) and the SSQ6 (Social Support Questionnaire; Sarason et al. 1983, 1987) to 370 women volunteering to participate in the study. Three hundred and forty and 330 women respectively, returned correctly completed questionnaires. In a second mailing we sent these participants the NSSQ (Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire; Norbeck et al. 1981, 1983) and two questionnaires by Bradshaw and Limond (1997), one assessing attachment to the cat (BrAtt), the other emotional support from the cat (BrES). Of these, 290, 295, and 293, respectively, were correctly completed and returned.We found a positive correlation bet...