A qualitative study using metacognition to evaluate the impacts of pet ownership and loss on existential thinking, mortality acceptance, and grief

Experiencing pet loss can shape the ways people cope with grief and may lead to increased existential thinking. This study investigated metacognition regarding ways owning or losing a pet may impact existential thinking and processing grief and mortality. Participants (n = 36; 67% Women) ranged in age from 17 to 60 (M = 24). The data were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), yielding six themes: afterlife belief, concern for others, animal equality, coping with human loss, death anxiety, and life perceptions. People felt losing a pet at a young age had better prepared them for experiencing human loss later and/or increased their understanding of the grieving process. Other responses indicated an increase in existential thinking and death anxiety resulting from considering their own death or the ephemerality of life. Participants' metacognitive understandings showed that the bond formed between pet and owner can have profound effects on how people think and behave.