近年來隨著社會的演變，當今社會的家庭結構產生極度明顯的變化，許多家庭都面臨到家中子女提早離家與人口數減少的問題，迫使空巢期提早出現在現代家庭的生命週期中，並衝擊了現代家庭的組合方式。為了因應此一轉變，近年在家庭生命週期的探討中，新型的家人與同伴關係－寵物關係－在現代社會中得到前所未有的發展，並受到整個社會的重視。基於以上，本研究試圖深度的去瞭解由寵物所發展出的同伴概念在現代家庭休閒的脈絡中所產生的效應，並了解寵物在不同的家庭生命週期中所扮演的角色、對該類型家庭的影響，以及藉寵物所取代並新創的親子關係。爲了探索寵物在現代家庭中所產生的意義以及描繪出寵物在生命周期中的角色變換，本研究採取質性研究中深度訪談的策略，訪談七個位於不同生命週期且飼養寵物的家庭，探討在現代家庭的結構中寵物家人的概念如何被建構，並嘗試了解現代家庭如何藉由寵物經營新型的陪伴關係。研究結果顯示飼主與寵物之間的互動關係會隨著家庭生命週期的改變而有所不同，而改變的重點在於子女角色的出現與消失。寵物雖被常被視為家中的一分子，卻會因不同的情境與時間軸點，在家庭中具有多層次的意義，並分別提供不同的角色扮演與功能。

Due to the significant change of current society, many families have confronted the early emergence of empty-nested period in family life courses. In recent years, few scholars started to focus on the modern kinship, which is executed by pets and human beings, in order to understand the meaning of modern family and realize how it is constructed. By conducting 7 successful in-depth interviews with couples in different life spans, this study attempted to explore the meanings of this new type of co-dependent relationship within family, and further understand the kinship between parents and their children in leisure context. The result indicated that the relationship between the pet and its owners is transforming according to different life courses, and the appearance of children is the essential reason to carry on the idea of family. However, the existence of pets is capable of providing the sense of kinship and increasing the degree of family satisfaction, especially when children were absent.