1. Reducing university students’ stress through a drop-in canine-therapy program
- Author
-
John-Tyler Binfet, Carson McKay, Holli-Anne Passmore, Alex Cebry, and Kathryn Struik
- Subjects
Male ,Stress reduction ,Universities ,education ,Diagnostic Self Evaluation ,Dogs ,Animal Assisted Therapy ,Stress (linguistics) ,Animals ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology ,Students ,Emotional health ,05 social sciences ,050301 education ,General Medicine ,Mental health ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Treatment Outcome ,Well-being ,Female ,Psychology ,0503 education ,Stress, Psychological ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Increasingly colleges and universities are offering canine therapy to help students de-stress as a means of supporting students' emotional health and mental well-being. Despite the popularity of such programs, there remains a dearth of research attesting to their benefits.Participants included 1960 students at a mid-size western Canadian University. The study's aims were to assess the stress-reducing effects of a weekly drop-in, canine-therapy program and to identify how long participants spent with therapy canines to reduce their stress.Demographic information was gathered, length of visit documented and a visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess entry and exit self-reports of stress.Participants' self-reported stress levels were significantly lower after the canine therapy intervention. Participants spent an average of 35 min per session.This study supports the use of drop-in, canine therapy as a means of reducing university students' stress. The findings hold applied significance for both counseling and animal therapy practitioners regarding the dose intervention participants seek to reduce their stress.
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF