中高齡者之寵物互動與幸福感：外向性、神經質、焦慮依附之調節效果

Abstract

現今臺灣少子化問題日趨嚴重，許多人養寵物取代孩子，中高齡者也常以寵物相伴，然而，從過去研究中卻發現關於中高齡者飼養寵物之幸福感有分歧的結果，部分研究指出中高齡者養寵物能身心健康，卻也有研究反駁此說法，因此本研究旨在探討中高齡者飼養不同寵物在寵物互動方式上與幸福感上的差異，並以外向性特質、神經質特質及焦慮依附程度調節中高齡者與寵物互動時間和幸福感的關係。本研究以全台灣飼養狗或貓的45歲以上中高齡者為研究對象，在預試階段抽樣85人（74份有效），旨在透過因素分析確認量表構念，其中女性佔74%，而正式問卷共招募292位受試者（232份有效），旨在進行假設之驗證，其中女性佔84%。本研究工具有研究者自編的寵物互動量表、Ryff(1989)所編製的幸福感量表、Saucer(1994)的簡短版五大人格特質量表以及Zilcha-Mano等人(2011)之寵物依附問卷，並透過網路google表單發放問卷。本研究透過因素分析將中高齡者與寵物的互動分為互動型照顧、非互動型照顧、互動型陪伴與非互動型陪伴，其中互動型陪伴與非互動型陪伴在與幸福感的關聯上相似，故將兩種陪伴型態合併為「陪伴」。另外，本研究透過多變量變異數分析發現中高齡者飼養狗較飼養貓需要提供更多的互動型照顧，但中高齡者飼養狗或貓在幸福感上是沒有差異的。在調節效果方面，本研究以迴歸分析探討變項間的關聯與交互作用，外性向及神經質能部分調節中高齡者和寵物互動時間與幸福感的關聯：外向性高之中高齡者與寵物互動時間增加時，其幸福感提升程度較外向性低者來的大；神經質高之中高齡者與寵物互動時間增加時，其幸福感會下降，但神經質低之中高齡者則幸福感持平。焦慮依附程度能調節中高齡者和寵物互動時間與幸福感的關聯：隨著中高齡者與寵物互動時間增加，焦慮依附程度高之中高齡者的幸福感會降低，而焦慮依附程度低之中高齡者的幸福感會提升。The problem of the declining birthrate in Taiwan is becoming increasingly serious nowadays. Many people keep pets instead of children, especially seniors. However, there were divergent results in previous studies regarding the well-being of seniors keeping pets. Some studies have pointed out that seniors can be physically and mentally healthy by keeping pets, but there are also studies that refute this claim. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the differences between seniors’ interaction with pets and their well-being, and the relationship between extraversion personality, neuroticism personality, and anxious attachment orientation to moderate the time seniors spend with their pets and their well-being. The subjects of the research were seniors over 45 years old who raised dogs or cats in Taiwan. The study sampled 85 people (74 valid; 74% women) during the pre-test, aiming to confirm the quantity through factor analysis. In the formal test, which aimed to verify the hypothesis, 292 subjects (232 valid) were recruited, of whom 84% were women. The research instruments included the self-edited Pet Interaction Scale, Ryff’s (1989) Psychological Well-being Scale, Saucer’s (1994) Big Five-Mini Markers, and Zilcha-Mano et al.’s (2011) Pet Attachment Scale. In this study, questionnaires were distributed through the Internet via Google form.This study used factor analysis to divide the interaction between seniors and pets into interactive care, non-interactive care, interactive companionship, and non-interactive companionship. Among them, interactive companionship and non-interactive companionship were related to well-being with similar results, so the two types of companionship were merged into"companionship." In addition, this study found through multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) that seniors needed more interactive care when raising dogs than cats, but there was no difference in well-being for seniors raising dogs or cats. Regarding the moderating effect, this study used regression analysis to explore the correlation and interaction between variables. Extroversion and neuroticism partially moderated the relationship between the seniors’ interaction time with pets and well-being: as interaction time increased, the degree of well-being increased more than for those with low extroversion; when the interaction time between the seniors with high neuroticism increased, their well-being decreased, but seniors with low neuroticism had the same well-being. The degree of anxious attachment orientation can moderate the relationship between the seniors’ interaction time with pets and well-being: as the interaction time between seniors and pets increases, the well-being of seniors with a high degree of anxious attachment orientation will decrease, while when the degree of anxious attachment orientation is low, the well-being of seniors will increase.