This major work summarizes the recent research and findings on the interactions of pets and their owners and the social and emotional benefits that may be derived by families who have pets. Social and health scientists explore the pervasiveness of the animal/human bond and the high prevalence of pets in U.S. households, including pets and children, pets and the elderly, pets as factors of stability and instability in family relationships, and pets as therapy for ill, grieving, and disabled family members. With this carefully researched book, researchers and family health professionals can better understand the complexities of family/animal interaction and can pursue further study into this increasingly important subject in contemporary society.

Chapter 1 Pet/Human Bonding: Applications, Conceptual and Research Issues, Marvin B. Sussman; Chapter 2 Pets as Family Members, Ann Ottney Cain; Chapter 3 The Social Meanings of Pets: Alternative Roles for Companion Animals, Jean E. Veevers; Chapter 4 Initiation and Maintenance of the Human-Animal Bond: Familial Roles from a Learning Perspective, Clark M. Brickel; Chapter 5 The Companion Animal in the Context of the Family System, Cecelia J. Soares; Chapter 6 Pets and the Socialization of Children, Michael Robin, Robert ten Bensel; Chapter 7 The Preadolescent/Pet Bond and Psychosocial Development, Janet Haggerty Davis, Anne McCreary Juhasz; Chapter 8 Pets, Early Adolescents, and Families, Anita Miller Covert, Alice Phipps Whiren, Joanne Keith, Christine Nelson; Chapter 9 Pets and Family Relationships Among Nursing Home Residents, Joel Savishinsky; Chapter 10 The Death of a Pet: Human Responses to the Breaking of the Bond, Kathleen V. Cowles; Chapter 11 The Effects on Family Members and Functioning After the Death of a Pet, Betty J. Carmack; Chapter 12 Health, Aquariums, and the Non-Institutionalized Elderly, Carol Cutler Riddick; Chapter 13 Life in the Treehouse: Pet Therapy as Family Metaphor and Self-Dialogue, Eugene Rochberg-Halton; Chapter 14 Health Benefits of Pets for Families, Erika Friedmann, Sue A. Thomas; Chapter 15 The Pet in the Military Family at Transfer Time: It Is No Small Matter, Lynn J. Anderson; Chapter 16 A Historical, Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Animal and Human Social Ecosystem, Kris Jeter;