Pet therapy has become a
very popular way to help individuals deal with mental illnesses as well as
being used for individuals with physical inabilities such as blindness (Wood).
However, universities across the country have been utilizing these animals to
help reduce stress among students for several different reasons (Wood; Pendry;
McDonald; Delgado). These animals can have many functions such as reducing
blood pressure of students, being a companion during lonely situations, and
maybe even alleviate depression among students (Pendry).
Especially during finals
weeks and for difficult majors, students can find life very challenging and
this stress of succeeding can be very detrimental (Wood). There are many different
forms of pet therapy that can help students with anxiety, depression, and
general stress. Studies conducted on the benefits of pet therapy utilize a
visitation method of around fifteen to twenty minutes without much sustained
contact (Wood; McDonald; Delgado). These short intervals do all display this as
an effective stress management strategy while also reducing cortisol levels and
blood pressure (Wood; McDonald; Delgado). One way to possibly build on these
experiments is to maintain these visitations for longer periods of time. This
could give vital information on whether this increased level of interaction
with an animal can lead to succeed or becoming distracted during a school year.
I do believe that these further experiments can help us improve the lives of
college students in many ways so that they do not feel alone during this very
important time in their lives.
These experiments while smaller
and specific to college students can lead to other applications throughout a student’s
college career. The use of animals can be used to not only help students succeed
in college but also teach them about responsibility. They learn to take care of
an animal in their life and it can lead to a very fulfilling experience. The most
important idea about this is that there still needs to be more controlled research
on whether these animals truly help students through their college experience.
It is also important to utilize these services and take advantage of them if
your university offers it so that your college experience is not spent
endlessly studying for exams.
Delgado, Cheryl, et al. “Effect of Canine
Play Interventions as a Stress Reduction Strategy in College Students.” Nurse Educator, vol. 43, no. 3, May 2018, pp.
149–153. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000451.
McDonald, Sylvia, et al. “Effects of Novel
Dog Exposure on College Students’ Stress Prior to Examination.” North American Journal of Psychology, vol. 19, no. 2,
June 2017, pp. 477–484. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2017-24005-014&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Pendry, Patricia, et al. “Clinical
Depression Moderates Effects of Animal-Assisted Stress Prevention Program on
College Students’ Emotion.” Journal of Public Mental Health,
vol. 18, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 94–101. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1108/JPMH-10-2018-0069.
Wood, Emily, et al. “The Feasibility of
Brief Dog-Assisted Therapy on University Students Stress Levels: The PAwS
Study.” Journal of Mental Health, vol. 27, no. 3, June 2018,
pp. 263–268. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1080/09638237.2017.1385737.
I can attest to how beneficial pet therapy can be! UT Austin used to bring in petting zoos and local foster dogs for students to play with during midterms and finals week. The impact on the students was infectious - everyone becomes a kid again when they see a young bunny or pet a llama. I hope this continues to be something that is implemented in colleges and universities across the country.
ReplyDeleteI know from personal experience that having my ESA has helped me significantly when dealing with stressful situations. I have also seen the relaxation that therapy dogs can bring to campus like Tanner the campus therapy dog. I think having the emotional connection and stress relief is highly beneficial to a student in need of a companion. My only concern I have comes down to the wellbeing of the animal and what kind of care its in when put into the position of being a support for a human individual. I think this needs to also be an aspect that should be considered in relation to the benefits pet therapy provides people. I can also agree with Kristen that I also hope programs like this can help many students on campuses across the nation.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to ask you, if in your research if you were able to come across any pet ethics and standardization necessary for pet therapy and the studies concerning animals in therapy benefiting humans?
ReplyDeletePersonally I love when support animals are brought to school for us to pet and destress with because I find it incredibly helpful (internet dog videos just aren’t the same as the real thing!). It is interesting to think about all the different issues that can arise from this when you consider emotional support animals (ESAs) being requested by students on university campuses. Unlike service animals ESAs are not required to go through any type of training, only a certification declaring the individual’s need for the ESA is needed (Salminen & Gregory, 2018). These light requirements provide problems for universities trying to make sure students that don’t need ESAs are bringing their pets from home because there are many online resources that provide the needed ESA certification for a fee (Salminen & Gregory, 2018). There’s a lot of interesting research regarding the usefulness of ESAs and the problem it presents for universities, and while I am not sure what the best way is for universities to handle the grey area that ESAs fall into, I do know that everytime I run into a dog on Regis campus (whether it is intended as a service animal or not) I feel the stress disappearing as I pet them!
ReplyDeleteSalminen, E., Gregory, D. (2018). Animal housing: emotional support animals on campuses. The Journal of College and University Studennt Housing 44(3), 46-61. https://web-a-ebscohost-com.dml.regis.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=dc436f60-3987-4d53-9147-076070bb17a1%40sessionmgr4007
I found an additional study that examined self-reports from almost 2000 university students after utilizing a campus animal therapy resource room (Binfet et al,. 2018). Through a method of self-reporting stress levels, they found that the length of time a given student spent with a therapy animal did not correlate with the degree of reduced stress, just that stress was reduced significantly regardless of time (Binfet et al,. 2018). Reading your post as well as other comments I think it is clear that animal therapy is a useful tool to effectively and efficiently reduce stress university students. As suggestive follow-up studies, I would be curious as to how quickly stress levels return to their pre-animal-therapy levels (either through blood testing or student self-reporting). I would also be curious as to how student stress levels compare between those with regular contact with an animal (a pet dog at home perhaps) versus those who have sporadic contact with a therapy animal.
ReplyDeleteBinfet, J.-T., Passmore, H.-A., Cebry, A., Struik, K., & McKay, C. (2018). Reducing university students’ stress through a drop-in canine-therapy program. Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), 27(3), 197–204. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1080/09638237.2017.1417551
Last year, I met a lady who had a Labrador named Pesto and she handed me his “business card”. On this business card that resembled a baseball card was a picture of Pesto with a smiling face. Instantly, I couldn't help but smile. She told me that her dog was part of the Canine Airport Therapy Squad (CATS) at the Denver International Airport. The purpose of this program was to provide therapy to people who are uncomfortable flying and to relieve stress for the passengers who are experiencing the normal stress of flying.
ReplyDeleteOne research found that petting a dog can instantly cause a rise in oxytocin levels for the human (Petersson et al. 2017). Oxytocin is known as being one of the “happy” hormones. As a dog owner myself, although I might be biased, I firmly support that these programs are generally beneficial for people under any stressful circumstance.
So, who is going to let the dogs out at Regis?
Petersson, M., Uvnäs-Moberg, K., Nilsson, A., Gustafson, L. L., Hydbring-Sandberg, E., & Handlin, L. (2017). Oxytocin and Cortisol Levels in Dog Owners and Their Dogs have Associated with Behavioral Patterns: An Exploratory Study. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1796. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01796