Robin Peth-Pierce, Public Health Communications Consulting, LLC, North Royalton, OH (USA)
Robyn Rose, Cleveland State University, OH (USA)

Human-animal interaction (HAI) research has revealed the depth and breadth of children’s experiences with pets, especially the bonds that connect them. When those bonds break, children can experience grief equivocal to human loss, yet no interventions are available to support them. A proposed two-phased intervention (psychoeducation and pet loss support group) is described to normalize feelings of grief, maintain continuing bonds, and help parents help their children through what is often their first loss.

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Presentation Description:

From an early age, children are immersed in a massive genre of pet tales, from Clifford the Big Red Dog to Where the Wild Things Are, and many live alongside pets in real life. About 94 million U.S. households now own a pet, many households with children, who form deep bonds with and develop an intense love for them. However – with that love – comes eventual loss. The death of a beloved pet, is, for many children, their first experience of loss; 63% of kids, before they turn age 7, will lose a pet (Crawford et al., 2021), and the death may be traumatic for children and associated with subsequent mental health difficulties (Crawford et al., 2021); 50% of children who experience pet loss experience have clinically significant grief (Schmidt et al., 2020), and if ignored, could have profound psychological impacts later in life; how a child first learns to cope with the death of a pet often mirrors how they will cope with human loss later (Wolfelt, 1996).           

Attendees will learn: (1) About the scant research that describes best methods for supporting children and families through pet loss; no theory-based, empirically tested interventions are described in the literature, nor available in practice (S. Brackenridge, personal communications); (2) What available research shows is most important, including continuing bonds (CB) activities to help children stay connected to their pets (Schmidt et al., 2020), as well as the critical importance of parents and caregivers providing support to their child during periods of loss (Boelen et al., 2021); (3) About a proposed theory-based intervention created to fill the gap in research and practice, called PAWS^TM, Processing and Adapting with Support, which is built on the available literature and provides guidance on how human service professionals might support children and families through their loss; (4) what social workers can do to help children and families gain much-needed knowledge, skills, and support as they grieve the loss of their beloved childhood pet.

References:

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• Brackenridge, S.  (2025).  Personal email communication on the availability of in-veterinary-clinic interventions to provide support to children and families and help them adapt to the loss of a family pet. 
• Crawford, K. M., Zhu, Y., Davis, K. A., Ernst, S., Jacobsson, K., Nishimi, K., Smith, A. D. A. C., & Dunn, E. C. (2021). The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 30(10), 1547–1558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01594-5
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