About one in 10 teenagers experience social anxiety-persistent and disruptive worries about being judged by their classmates and other peers. In a new study of adolescents with social anxiety, researchers at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University found that certain qualities of teens' relationships with their pet dogs were associated with healthier ways of coping with peer-related stress. 

The study, published in the Journal of Adolescence, analyzed survey responses from 514 U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17 and a parent of each teenager surveyed. Researchers examined whether specific aspects of the teen–dog relationship-such as affection, companionship, caring for the dog, emotional support, friction, and viewing the dog as a substitute for people-were linked to different coping styles. 

The findings suggest that the nuances of a teen's unique relationship with their dog may affect how a pet dog contributes to healthy development, sometimes in unexpected ways. For example, the researchers expected that feeling emotional support from a dog would be linked more often to healthier coping strategies and less often to maladaptive ones. However, the results indicated the opposite: feelings of emotional support were less likely to be associated with positive thinking and more likely to be associated with persistently dwelling on negative thoughts. 

The researchers undertook the study to assess how dogs may help teens cope with social stressors in a positive way during a life stage that can feel a bit like an emotional rollercoaster. 

"During adolescence, teenagers develop their sense of self," said Megan Mueller, Ph.D., the study's senior author and an associate professor in the Department of Comparative Pathobiology at Cummings School. "Teenagers undergo a natural shift, with peers replacing parents as their primary relationships. There's naturally some emotional churn during this transition, which can cause a lot of anxiety for some kids." 

"Dogs in many ways bridge the space between family and peers," continued Mueller, who is also director of the Pets and Wellbeing (PAW) Lab at Cummings School. "They're obviously not your parents, but they're part of the family unit and may serve as a familiar source of comfort. We were curious if relationships with companion animals, and dogs in particular, may be one way of supporting effective coping through social support and emotion regulation." 

For the study, the researchers selected teen participants with high levels of social anxiety. Both teens and parents responded to questionnaires collecting data about the teen's relationship with their dog and how the teen copes with stress from peers. The scientists used statistical models to identify links between specific aspects of the dog-human relationship and various coping behaviors reported by the teens and parents. 

We wanted to see if certain dog-relationship qualities were associated with either productive or less-effective coping strategies."

Nicole Mason, study's lead author and a Ph.D. student at Cummings School

The study found that companionship and caring for the dog both were linked to adolescents coping with peer stress in healthier ways, such as through problem solving, positive thinking, emotional regulation, and emotional expression. 

Feeling affection toward a dog was not significantly associated with either healthier or less-healthy coping styles. 

Friction-like getting frustrated over a dog's shoe-chewing habit-was linked to less-healthy coping strategies for peer stress, such as avoidance, denial, rumination, and emotional numbing. 

Viewing dogs as substitutes for people-for example, reporting that the pet dog is a more important friend than any peer-also was linked to less-healthy coping strategies. "One possible explanation is that a dog becoming a teen's main source of social support may reflect a lack of other social connections," said Mueller. 

"Future studies will help us understand that relationship and other potential dynamics at play more clearly," Mueller said. "We're now following teens and their dogs over time to better understand how these relationships develop and whether factors such as a dog's personality, behavior, and compatibility with a teen influence their coping and well-being." 

Source:

Journal reference:

Mason, N., et al. (2026). Adolescent‐Dog Relationship Quality and Coping With Peer Stress. Journal of Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.70247. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jad.70247