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For young children, having a pet can help with social and emotional development.

75 percent of all children age 7 and older have pets, with ownership highest in single-child households.

Pet ownership has been shown to promote empathy, kindness, and sharing in only children.

Concern about an only child’s development growing up without a sibling remains an undercurrent for some. But as evidence mounts that siblings are not essential, more people are realizing that a child does not need a sibling to learn how to share, to be respectful of others, and to be caring, compassionate, and responsible. The new science highlights how only children thrive.

No Sibling—An Imagined Deficit

“You got me the brother I always wanted,” screeched Neha’s 6-year-old only child, when her mother* put a puppy in her daughter’s outstretched arms.

For most children, requesting a human sibling is a stage. Some kids can be fierce and relentless for a while; others never ask. That leaves it to parents to decide not only if they want to have multiple children but also how to break it to their only child if they don’t want to when the subject comes up.

As far-fetched as it may seem, for many only child parents, a pet is part of the solution. “It may sound sort of nuts, but I really think having a pet fills the perceived sibling void,” one mother* told me.

It’s actually not crazy at all when you think of how much we value our pets. According to a Pew Research Center survey, “About half of U.S. pet owners say their pets are as much a part of........

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