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Internalizing symptoms are prevalent in students as they enter and complete college. Considering research suggesting mental health benefits of pet ownership, this study explores the relationship between pet ownership, social support (SS), and internalizing symptoms (IS) in a cohort of students across their 4-year college experience. With no differences at college entry, students growing up with pets had greater IS through the fourth year, and greater SS through the third year, than those without pets. Currently living with a pet, gender, SS and personality predicted IS in the fourth year. Females experiencing higher IS in their first year are more likely to live with pets in their fourth year, and fourth year females living with pets or greatly missing absent pets have higher IS than females without pets or missing pets less. Findings suggest a unique relationship between IS in female students and their pet relationships not seen in males.

A university counseling center engaged a therapy dog program for an outreach activity to reduce stress as students prepare for final exams at a large culturally diverse university. This article describes the rationale, planning, and implementation of the activity; presents an evaluation summary; and provides recommendations and implications for counselors interested in using a similar activity. A large and diverse student population attended the activity and gave primarily positive feedback for this low-cost group activity.

Finding willing, qualified candidates for the principalship is increasingly difficult in Washington State and elsewhere. Candidate pools are smaller. There are more openings prompted by increased numbers of students and administrative retirements and fewer students in educational administration. Greater demands have reduced the role's attractiveness. To ensure a worthy successor, administrators should mentor and aggressively recruit in-house (teacher) candidates. (MLH)

Investigated construct validity of the Family Life Space Diagram (FLSD) in which physical distance was equated with emotional distance. Participants (n=122), who were dog owners, described each relationship that they drew on the FLSD and the descriptors were rated to closeness by two independent raters. Results provided evidence for the construct validity of the FLSD. (Author/ABL)

This study investigated the optimal time for measuring stress and immune function in 20 healthcare professionals (19 women and 1 man) following interaction with a therapy dog. A nonclinical sample of healthcare professionals was assigned to 20 min. of quiet rest, and 5 and 20 min. with a therapy dog. Serum cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine were collected at baseline, 5, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min. postcondition. Salivary cortisol, salivary IgA, and blood for lympbocytes were collected at baseline, 30, 45, and 60 min. postcondition. Analysis indicated significant reductions in serum and salivary cortisol. The optimal time for measuring serum or salivary cortisol following interaction with a therapy dog was 45 min., with changes in salivary cortisol reflecting serum cortisol changes. Findings also suggest stress reduction in healthcare professionals may occur after as little as 5 min. of interaction with a therapy dog and warrants further investigation.

This article addresses challenges in designing Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) research. A summary of previous reviews of HAI research is presented, followed by a discussion of areas that present particular challenges to research in this field, specifically design issues, control of extraneous variables, sample selection, intervention development, and outcome measurement. Suggestions for addressing these areas also are presented. Keywords: human-animal interactions; animal-assisted interventions; human-animal bond research

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find willing and qualified candidates for the principalship. This is due to the smaller candidate pools, increased administrative retirements and the reduced attractiveness of the role due to the greater demands. School districts in Washington state in particular, have experienced a smaller candidate pool for advertised positions.