Dog and cat ownership were linked with stress through different daily pathways, not a simple pet-versus-pet story.

Pets can comfort people. They can also add strain. This study separates those paths.

Quick summary

• What the study found: In Comparative mediation analysis of dog and cat ownership and perceived stress, dog ownership was associated with slightly lower perceived stress than cat ownership, but the overall difference was marginal.
• Why it matters: The strongest pathways differed by species: interaction mattered most for dog owners, while emotional closeness mattered most for cat owners.
• What to be careful about: This was observational pandemic-era data, so it cannot show that dogs, cats, or any pet-related factor caused stress changes.

Dog owners reported a small stress edge

The study compared 1,923 dog owners with 1,804 cat owners using data collected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dog ownership was linked with slightly lower perceived stress than cat ownership. The difference was not large, and the paper describes it as only marginal overall.

The more useful result is not which pet wins. It is how different parts of pet ownership were associated with stress.

Daily interaction mattered more for dogs

The biggest species-specific difference involved human-animal interaction, meaning the everyday contact between owner and animal.

For dog owners, more interaction showed a strong inverse association with perceived stress. For cat owners, that same pathway showed only a minimal association.

This fits everyday experience without proving causality. Dogs often structure walks, routines, and direct engagement, while many cat relationships may rely less on scheduled interaction.

Closeness, costs, and behavior problems cut both ways

For cat owners, emotional closeness was the most influential mediator. A mediator is a factor that may help explain the link between ownership type and stress.

Emotional closeness was positively associated with perceived stress in both groups. That does not mean closeness is bad; it may reflect worry, responsibility, or stronger emotional stakes.

Perceived costs and behavior problems had the strongest associations with higher perceived stress across species. These links were slightly more pronounced for dog ownership.

Use the findings for reflection, not pet advice

The practical message is modest. A pet can be emotionally meaningful and still create demands that feel stressful.

For a busy adult, that might mean noticing two separate tracks: the parts of pet life that feel connecting, and the parts that drain money, time, or patience.

The study does not support getting a dog to reduce stress. It also does not suggest that cats are worse for stress.

Most of the stress link remains unexplained

The studied mediators accounted for only 26% of the overall association between ownership type and perceived stress.

That leaves many possible explanations outside this analysis, such as unmeasured life circumstances or differences between people who choose dogs and people who choose cats.

The careful takeaway: dog and cat ownership may relate to stress through different pathways, but the evidence is best read as hypothesis-generating, not as a prescription.