Answer to Question #174703 in Psychology for joan george

Question

A local school has started offering a special ‘pets at school’ service where people bring pets into school for the children to look after during the day. The children who are chosen to spend time with the pets have previously been identified as having low self-esteem and a negative self-concept. After six weeks of using the ‘pets at school’ service, the children reported that they feel more confident in making decisions for themselves. The children also reported that they felt important and useful when looking after the pets.

Assess how well the findings from Van Houtte and Jarvis (1995) can explain the impact of the ‘pets at school’ service.

Your answer:

Answer 1

From Van Houtte and Jarvis’s (1995) findings, it is clear that there is a beneficial role pets’ play in enabling the psychosocial growth of prepubescent children. The pet is seen by both the parent and child as a progressive resource during prepubescent development. The pets help the kid in achieving key developmental tasks namely autonomy, responsibility, socialization, and the advancement of humanistic potentials. Pets help children to develop self-esteem and identity. Pets also offer children a new viewpoint on significant life matters namely birth, illness, and death. Therefore, attainment of these evolving tasks guarantees a charming transition into puberty for the child.