Canine-assisted intervention reduces anxiety and stress in higher education students: a randomized controlled trial
Manville, Karen, Coulson, Mark and Reynolds, Gemma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2893-6380
(2022)
Canine-assisted intervention reduces anxiety and stress in higher education students: a randomized controlled trial.
Society & Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies
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ISSN 1063-1119
[Article]
(Published online first)
(doi:10.1163/15685306-bja10101)
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- Final accepted version (with author's formatting)
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore benefits of interacting with a canine on anxiety, stress, depression, and wellbeing in Higher Education (HE) students. Sixty participants took part in a randomized controlled trial. Assigned to either the canine-assisted intervention (CAI) or control group, the CAI group interacted with a canine whereas the control group watched an unrelated slideshow. Anxiety, depression, stress, and wellbeing measures were completed pre- and post-intervention and demonstrated there was a significant decrease in anxiety and stress in the CAI group. Due to group differences pre-intervention, findings for depression measures were uninterpretable and there was no significant effect found for general wellbeing. Overall, this study uses a CAI and control group and explores the use of a singular, brief CAI session in HE students demonstrating CAI to be an effective means of supporting mental health by decreasing levels of anxiety and stress in the treatment group.
Item Type: | Article |
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Theme: | |
Keywords (uncontrolled): | animal-assisted-activities; canine-assisted-interaction; HE students; mental health |
Research Areas: | A. > School of Science and Technology > Psychology |
Item ID: | 35511 |
Notes on copyright: | This author's accepted manuscript version is made available as permitted by the publisher's Article Sharing Policy https://brill.com/page/selfarchiving/sharing-your-work-selfarchiving |
Useful Links: | |
Depositing User: | Gemma Reynolds |
Date Deposited: | 02 Aug 2022 16:35 |
Last Modified: | 06 Sep 2022 04:39 |
URI: | https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/35511 |
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