Abstract
Echoing content presented at the 69th Annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation focused on Canine Cognition and the Human Bond, this chapter shares selective results of efficacy trials examining effects of animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) conducted in a university setting. The chapter focuses on two multi-year studies examining effects of (1) a 10-min animal visitation program (AVP) and (2) comparing effects of a 4-week evidenced-based stress prevention programs featuring varying levels of human animal interaction (HAI) with registered canine therapy teams. Both studies focus on campus-based AAIs aimed at preventing or alleviating university student stress and distress to mitigate the development of mental health disorders and academic failure in typical and at-risk university students. Outcomes across various developmental domains are examined including socioemotional (e.g., students’ momentary emotion states), physiological (e.g., basal, diurnal, and momentary cortisol and alpha amylase levels), cognitive (e.g., executive function), and behavioral (e.g., study skills and learning strategies) while considering student risk factors associated with the development of stress-related psychopathology including a history or presence of mood disorders (e.g., clinical depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, etc.), academic failure, and developmentally-based learning challenges. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
- 2.
All participants were provided extra credit vouchers to be turned into their professors.
- 3.
Cohen’s effects sizes were > 0.5.
- 4.
Note we are referring not to behavior by study participants but instead describe behavior of non-study participants who were present at the program site and experienced “normal” program conditions including waiting in line for a considerable amount of time.
- 5.
To avoid condition-specific attrition, all participants, including those in the ASM condition, were told they would experience an opportunity to interact with animals, but that the timing and amount of HAI would vary, as such blinding them to the expected ratio of HAI. HAI was provided to the ASM group after completion of all outcome assessments.
- 6.
All proceedings were video-recorded via seven different simultaneous camera angles.
- 7.
These specific risk factors were chosen as they are commonly used by university administrators and agencies to identify students for referral to campus counseling, psychological services, and the university’s access center.
- 8.
Participants received $60 USD for completing assessments, which were prorated at $20 USD per assessment.
References
Adam, E. K. (2012). Emotion—Cortisol transactions occur over multiple time scales in development: Implications for research on emotion and the development of emotional disorders. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 77(2), 17–27.
American College Health Association. (2019). American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: Undergraduate student reference group executive summary spring 2019. American College Health Association. https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-III_Fall_2019_Reference_Group_Executive_Summary.pdf
American College Health Association. (2020). American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: Undergraduate student reference group executive summary fall 2019. American College Health Association. https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-III_Fall_2019_Reference_Group_Executive_Summary.pdf
American College Health Association. (2021). American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III: Undergraduate student reference group executive summary spring 2021. American College Health Association. https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-III_SPRING-2021_UNDERGRADUATE_REFERENCE_GROUP_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY_updated.pdf
Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. A. (1993). Beck anxiety inventory: Manual (2nd ed.). The Psychological Corporation.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck depression inventory (2nd ed.). The Psychological Corporation.
Beetz, A., Uvnäs-Moberg, K., Kotschal, K., Kikusui, T., Hart, L. A., & Olbrich, E. (2012). Psychosocial and psychophysiological effects of human-animal interactions: The possible role of oxytocin. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00234
Berkel, C., Mauricio, A. M., Schoenfelder, E., & Sandler, I. N. (2011). Putting the pieces together: An integrated model of program implementation. Prevention Science: The Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 12(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-010-0186-1
Binfet, J.-T., Passmore, H.-A., Cebry, A., Struik, K., & McKay, C. (2017). Reducing university students’ stress through a drop-in canine-therapy program. Journal of Mental Health, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1417551
Carr, A. M., & Pendry, P. (2022, July). Assessing attendance frequency and duration in a drop-in canine visitation program among first-semester university students separated from their family pets. In Anthrozoology in translation: Communicating research from and to multiple audiences. International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ), Virtual.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385–396. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (1987). Validity and reliability of the experience-sampling method. In M. Csikszentmihalyi (Ed.), Flow and the foundations of positive psychology: The collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pp. 35–54). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9088-8_3
Eisenberg, D., & Lipson, S. K. (2019). The healthy minds study 2018–2019 data report. https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HMS_national.pdf
Greer, T. M., & Cavalhieri, K. E. (2019). The role of coping strategies in understanding the effects of institutional racism on mental health outcomes for African American men. Journal of Black Psychology, 45(5), 405–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798419868105
Gunnar, M. R., & Adam, E. K. (2012). The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical system and emotion: Current wisdom and future directions. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 77(2), 109–119.
Haggerty, J. M., & Mueller, M. K. (2017). Animal-assisted stress reduction programs in higher education. Innovative Higher Education, 42(5–6), 379–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-017-9392-0
Henriques, G. (2018, November 18). The college student mental health crisis (update). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201811/the-college-student-mental-health-crisis-update
IAHAIO. (2014). The IAHAIO definitions for animal assisted intervention and guidelines for wellness of animals involved. International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations. https://iahaio.org/best-practice/white-paper-on-animal-assisted-interventions/
Kirschbaum, C., & Hellhammer, D. H. (1994). Salivary cortisol in psychoneuroendocrine research: Recent developments and applications. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 19(4), 313–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4530(94)90013-2
Kuzara, S., Pendry, P., & Gee, N. R. (2019). Exploring the handler-dog connection within a university-based animal-assisted activity. Animals, 9(7), 402. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9070402
Lipson, S. K., Lattie, E. G., & Eisenberg, D. (2019). Increased rates of mental health service utilization by U.S. college students: 10-year population-level trends (2007–2017). Psychiatric Services, 70(1), 60–63. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201800332
Meyer, T. J., Miller, M. L., Metzger, R. L., & Borkovec, T. D. (1990). Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 487–495. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(90)90135-6
Morrison, N. (2021, May 13). The therapeutic tool that works better than a stress management program—A dog. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2021/05/13/the-therapeutic-tool-that-works-better-than-a-stress-management-programa-dog/
Pendry, P., & Vandagriff, J. L. (2019). Animal visitation program (AVP) reduces cortisol levels of university students: A randomized controlled trial. AERA Open, 5(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419852592
Pendry, P., & Vandagriff, J. L. (2020). Salivary studies of the social neuroscience of human-animal interaction. In D. A. Granger & M. K. Taylor (Eds.), Salivary bioscience: Foundations of interdisciplinary saliva research and applications. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35784-9
Pendry, P., Smith, A. N., & Roeter, S. M. (2014). Randomized trial examines effects of equine facilitated learning on adolescents’ basal cortisol levels. Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, 2(1), 80–95.
Pendry, P., Carr, A. M., Roeter, S. M., & Vandagriff, J. L. (2018). Experimental trial demonstrates effects of animal-assisted stress prevention program on college students’ positive and negative emotion. Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, 6(1), 81–97.
Pendry, P., Kuzara, S., & Gee, N. R. (2019a). Evaluation of undergraduate students’ responsiveness to a 4-week university-based animal-assisted stress prevention program. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(18), 3331. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183331
Pendry, P., Vandagriff, J. L., & Carr, A. M. (2019b). Clinical depression moderates effects of animal-assisted stress prevention program on college students’ emotion. Journal of Public Mental Health, 18(2), 94–101. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-10-2018-0069
Pendry, P., Carr, A. M., Gee, N. R., & Vandagriff, J. L. (2020a). Randomized trial examining effects of animal assisted intervention and stress related symptoms on college students’ learning and study skills. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 1909. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061909
Pendry, P., Carr, A. M., Vandagriff, J. L., & Gee, N. R. (2020b). Randomized controlled trial examining effects of varying levels of human canine interaction on college students’ diurnal cortisol. 29th International Society for Anthrozoology annual conference. One Health One Welfare, Virtual.
Pendry, P., Kuzara, S., & Gee, N. R. (2020c). Characteristics of student–dog interaction during a meet-and-greet activity in a university-based animal visitation program. Anthrozoös, 33(1), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2020.1694311
Pendry, P., Carr, A. M., Vandagriff, J. L., & Gee, N. R. (2021). Incorporating human–animal interaction into academic stress management programs: Effects on typical and at-risk college students’ executive function. AERA Open, 7(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211011612
Rodriguez, K. E., Herzog, H., & Gee, N. R. (2021). Variability in human-animal interaction research. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7, 619600. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.619600
Roth, R. M., Isquith, P. K., & Gioia, G. A. (2005). Behavior rating inventory of executive function – Adult version (BRIEF-A). Psychological Assessment Resources.
Son, C., Hegde, S., Smith, A., Wang, X., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on college students’ mental health in the United States: Interview survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9), e21279. https://doi.org/10.2196/21279
The Healthy Minds Network & American College Health Association. (n.d.). The impact of covid-19 on college student well-being. Retrieved December 18, 2021, from https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/Healthy_Minds_NCHA_COVID_Survey_Report_FINAL.pdf
Weinstein, B. J., & Palmer, D. R. (2002). Learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI): Users manual (2nd ed.). H & H Publishing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pendry, P., Carr, A.M. (2023). Effects of University-Based AAIs: Conceptual Models Guiding Research on Active Treatment Components of AAIs on Stress-Related Outcomes. In: Stevens, J.R. (eds) Canine Cognition and the Human Bond. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, vol 69. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29789-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29789-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-29788-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-29789-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)