Table of contentsIntroductionSurveyLiterature reviewData collectionConstructConclusionI am intrigued by the abundance of pets present in the hands of the young people around me and, therefore, I would like to investigate the influence of pet ownership. socio-emotional development of young people in Singapore. To do this, I searched for articles detailing similar studies or experiments previously conducted by digital library and Internet professionals. I also sent a questionnaire to young Singaporeans aged fifteen to sixteen to collect raw data, which I then organized to be more presentable, and summarize the information. After gathering enough data and information from my literature review and personal data collection, I analyzed and found the key points relating to my investigation. This allowed me to conclude at the end of my investigation that owning a pet affects young Singaporeans' capacity for empathy and autonomy, their level of loneliness and their level of diligence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayIntroductionPets are domestic animals kept for companionship and are no strangers to Singaporeans. In fact, most Singaporeans have owned at least one pet in their lifetime, whether it's a dog, a hamster or even a frog. Every day we see people of all ages walking their dogs around the neighborhood. Almost every mall and shopping center in the country has a pet store, where one can buy pet food, pet toys or sometimes even the pet itself. It is therefore evident that pets have been integrated into a part of Singapore's community and society. I have observed that many young people in Singapore today own pets or intend to own pets. This piques my interest. Adolescence is a crucial phase of life because of its contribution to our quality of health and emotional well-being. However, common knowledge of youth development is limited to their relationships with other human beings. Pet ownership is also very common, but it is not a subject studied in depth. Therefore, I want to evaluate whether pets bring any benefits to adolescents' lives. More specifically, I want to study the effect of pet ownership on the psychological development of emotional intelligence in young people. Therefore, my inquiry question is: How does pet ownership influence the socio-emotional development of young people in Singapore? Investigation To conduct my investigation effectively, I planned to go through three stages: ; research, gather and conclude. First, I will search for and look at articles detailing similar studies or experiments previously conducted by professionals. These articles will be sourced from the Internet through the use of appropriate search engines such as Google Scholar and digital libraries such as JSTOR. I will gather information from these articles, find relevant points that can help me in my investigation, and summarize the information. . Second, I will conduct my own raw data collection. I will do this by interviewing young people who may or may not own a pet. I will then organize the data so that it ispresentable, which will allow me to analyze them more easily. I will then summarize the information I gathered through the questionnaire. Finally, based on my review of the literature and the data I collected to answer my inquiry question, I will arrive at an understanding. I will then formulate a well-developed conclusion based on this understanding and conclude my investigation. Literature Review Reviewing the articles and reports I viewed in digital and physical libraries, it is evident that pet ownership among young people is detrimental to their emotional health. For example, according to Rhoades (2015), younger pet owners reported fewer symptoms of depression and loneliness than their non-pet owning peers. There is also evidence that social development is also linked to pet ownership, but only if young people have been in the presence of these pets from an early age. No effects of pet ownership on social measures were observed among adolescents aged 13 to 18, but children who scored higher on the Pet Attachment Scale company also showed significantly higher scores on empathy scales. Autonomy and independent decision-making skills are also higher in these children. Thus, a young person who recently owned a pet would have undergone these developments in his social domain. Data collection On May 8, 2018, I sent a questionnaire to the 3rd and 4th grade students of St Joseph's Institution and my associates who are of the same age group in other secondary schools. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: a personal information form and a presentation of a handful of situations in which respondents must choose the option that best reflects their reaction, similar to an emotional quotient (EQ) test. . In the personal information form, the respondents' age, gender, family history, and pet ownership experience were recorded. This allowed me to categorize the data in a way that allowed me to eliminate all other factors related to youth's social-emotional development and compare results solely based on their pet ownership status. I then analyzed the various responses I received from 57 respondents and made some crucial discoveries. First, young people who have had the experience of owning a pet are more willing to engage in the middle of a conflict in order to find a solution. In the questionnaire the following situation was presented: you took a group of 4 year olds to the park and one of them starts crying because the others don't want to play with her. A larger percentage of respondents who had never owned a pet chose not to enter, while most of those who had previously spent time with a pet chose to talk to the child who cried and to help her find ways to get the other children to play with her. We can therefore deduce that owning a pet helps young people develop the desire to discuss a problem or find a solution. Second, pet ownership promotes better perseverance and better coping with failure among adolescents. In the questionnaire, the following situation was presented. Imagine you are an insurance salesman calling potential customers. Fifteen people in a row have hung up on you and you're getting discouraged. Respondents who had experience with pets mostly chose to..