A cats and child mental health study is understandably concerning to families who share their homes with cats. The newest finding deserves attention, but it does not show that cats cause mental-health difficulties in children.
What the news story reported
ScienceAlert reported on a 2025 study that examined whether household pet ownership in early childhood was associated with emotional and behavioral outcomes later in childhood. The reported headline emphasizes that cats, rather than other pets examined, were linked with worse outcomes.
That description needs an important qualification. The study did not find that every child with a cat had worse mental health. Its cat-specific finding concerned a particular ownership pattern: families that owned a cat only when their child was ages 4 to 5, rather than at age 1 as well.
Why this matters for families and cats
For U.S. families, a report like this can create understandable worry or reinforce unfair assumptions about cats. That matters for animal welfare, because headlines that turn an association into a simple claim that a pet is harmful can contribute to guilt, stigma, or impulsive decisions about a family animal.
Children’s emotional well-being is shaped by many connected factors, including family stress, housing, finances, parental mental health, school and child-care experiences, relationships, and a child’s preexisting needs. Those factors may also influence whether and when a family gets a pet. A study needs especially strong methods to separate these influences from any possible effect of pet ownership itself.
What the cats and child mental health study found
The strongest evidence behind the news report is a 2025 analysis from the INMA project involving 1,893 families. Researchers recorded whether families had pets when children were age 1 and again at ages 4 to 5. When the children reached ages 7 to 8, caregivers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a commonly used questionnaire about children’s emotional and behavioral symptoms.
The researchers considered cats and dogs separately, along with birds and other animals. Children in families that owned a cat only at ages 4 to 5 had higher scores for both:
• Internalizing problems, which can include emotional symptoms and difficulties directed inward, such as worry or sadness. • Externalizing problems, which can include behaviors directed outward, such as conduct or attention-related difficulties.
For that cat-ownership pattern, the study reported a relative rate ratio of 1.37 for internalizing problems and 1.26 for externalizing problems. In plain language, the scores were statistically higher in that group under the study’s analysis. The reported confidence intervals did not cross 1, meaning the estimates met the researchers’ threshold for statistical significance.
The analysis also found that always having “other animals” was associated with fewer internalizing problems. The abstract did not report a comparable harmful association for dog ownership. However, an absence of a reported dog finding is not proof that dogs protect children or that cats are uniquely harmful.
What the study cannot tell us
This was an observational cohort study. Researchers followed families and measured patterns that already existed; they did not randomly assign children to grow up with a cat, dog, or no pet. As a result, the study can identify an association but cannot establish cause and effect.
For example, a family may acquire a cat during a period of change or stress. A child’s emerging behavior, family routines, moving homes, changes in caregiving, or other unmeasured circumstances could be related both to getting a cat and to later questionnaire scores. The study adjusted and tested its findings in several ways, but no observational study can rule out every alternative explanation.
The study also does not identify a biological, behavioral, or social mechanism. It does not show that cat contact, cat behavior, litter boxes, allergies, infections, or any other proposed explanation caused the association.
Most importantly, the finding does not apply to all cat-owning households. It concerned children whose families had a cat at ages 4 to 5 only. It does not establish that having a cat from infancy, having a cat throughout childhood, or adopting a cat at another age produces the same result.
Other research does not point in one direction
The 2025 INMA study directly supports the narrow claim that one early-childhood cat-ownership pattern was associated with higher later emotional and behavioral problem scores. But the broader claim that cats worsen children’s mental health is not settled.
A 2020 longitudinal study of Australian children reported a directionally different result. In that study, cat-only and dog-only ownership were associated with fewer emotional symptoms and peer problems compared with no pet ownership. Like the INMA study, it was observational, so it also cannot prove that pets caused the differences.
The studies differ in their populations, children’s ages, definitions of pet ownership, outcome groupings, and statistical approaches. Those differences could help explain why they produced conflicting associations. At present, the evidence does not justify treating cat ownership as a known cause of mental-health problems in children.
Research on dogs provides context, not an answer about cats
A 2021 observational study of preschool children found that children in dog-owning households had lower odds of some reported difficulties and higher odds of prosocial behavior. More family dog walking and active play were also associated with some favorable outcomes.
These results are relevant context because daily routines with dogs may differ from routines with cats. But the dog study did not evaluate cats, and it cannot establish that dog ownership caused better development. It therefore cannot prove that dogs are beneficial while cats are harmful.
What this means in everyday terms
The news report is based on a real, recent study with a cat-specific result. Still, the appropriate conclusion is narrow: researchers found an association in one group and one pattern of ownership, not evidence that a cat causes a child’s emotional or behavioral difficulties.
Families should also be cautious about framing a child’s feelings or behavior as a pet problem without broader context. A child’s mental health concerns deserve attention based on the child’s experiences and needs, not a headline about species ownership.
What You Can Take Away from This Reading
• A 2025 study linked cat ownership only at ages 4 to 5 with higher internalizing and externalizing problem scores at ages 7 to 8. • The study shows an association, not that living with a cat caused those scores. • The result does not apply to every cat-owning family or every way a child might grow up with a cat. • Another longitudinal study found more favorable associations for cat-only ownership, so the overall research picture is mixed. • Current evidence does not support blaming a household cat for a child’s mental-health difficulties or making broad decisions about cat ownership from this one finding.
Sources
González L, Guxens M, Sarzo B, et al. “Impact of pet ownership in early childhood at ages 1 and 4-5 years on mental health at ages 7-8: findings from the INMA project.” World Journal of Pediatrics, 2025. PMID: 41045339. DOI: 10.1007/s12519-025-00942-2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41045339/
Christian H, Mitrou F, Cunneen R, Zubrick SR. “Pets Are Associated with Fewer Peer Problems and Emotional Symptoms, and Better Prosocial Behavior: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.” The Journal of Pediatrics, 2020. PMID: 32093933. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.01.012. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32093933/
Wenden EJ, Lester L, Zubrick SR, Ng M, Christian HE. “The relationship between dog ownership, dog play, family dog walking, and pre-schooler social-emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE observational study.” Pediatric Research, 2021. PMID: 32624570. DOI: 10.1038/s41390-020-1007-2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32624570/