Research overview: owner personality and cat behaviour and welfare

A growing line of research examines how owners' own personality traits relate to their cats' behaviour, health and welfare, paralleling parenting-style research in humans. This overview surveys studies using validated personality inventories alongside measures of cat behaviour problems, lifestyle, body condition and stress. Findings broadly suggest that owner traits such as high neuroticism or particular caregiving styles are associated with cats kept indoors, reported behavioural issues, and differences in the cat's anxiety or sociability, while more conscientious or emotionally stable owners tend to report better outcomes. The survey discusses the difficulty of separating cause from effect in cross-sectional designs and emphasizes that the human-cat relationship is bidirectional, with the owner's psychology shaping the cat's environment and the cat's behaviour shaping the owner's experience.