Effects of human-animal interaction on positive youth development: A replication study

Interacting with animals can improve health and well-being across the lifespan. Some programs such as 4-H and FFA center around youth interacting with animals, potentially enhancing youth development. Mueller (2014) investigated whether these interactions and attitudes about animals influenced measures of positive youth development. The aim of our studies was to replicate Mueller’s methods and extend her work by evaluating whether membership in animal-focused youth programs moderate any associations between interactions, attitudes, and positive youth development. We did not find strong relationships among human-animal interaction and positive youth development, which failed to replicate Mueller’s findings. However, we did find relationships between animal attitudes and positive youth development, replicating Mueller’s findings. Membership in animal-focused youth programs did not moderate any observed effects. Thus, though animal attitudes are associated with positive youth development, membership in a youth program does not seem to enhance these relationships, and human-animal interactions do not seem to have strong associations with positive youth development.