Examining Stress and Pet/Stuffed Animal Attachment Levels with College Students

Research shows that stress affects over 50% of undergraduates’ health on university campuses (Crump & Derting, 2015). One of the reasons is due to the developmental transition between college and adulthood, which is usually confronted with stressful situations as students prepare to adapt in the new environment (Kim, Noh, & Park, 2015). While pets and stuffed animals are popular in society, there has been little research conducted to investigate if owning pets and/or stuffed animals relates to lower stress levels. The first hypothesis was to determine if pet ownership relates to lower perceived stress in college students. The second hypothesis was to determine if stuffed animal ownership relates to lower perceived stress in college students. Researchers also investigated if college students have a similar attachment level between pets and stuffed animals. There were some significant correlations discovered that provided new information on pet/stuffed animal attachment. Further implications of the results will be discussed