Could Dogs be the Answer to Beating University Stress?

Written by Adele Lindsay


We all know that the transition to university can be difficult; trying to adjust to living somewhere new, moving away from family and friends, getting to lectures on time and even finding our way around campus can be anxiety inducing. It is unsurprising then that the amount of students seeking counselling services has risen by 30%. So, what can we do about this sad state of affairs? Well, the answer could be as simple as letting students spend time with man and woman’s best friend.


There are many studies that suggest just this! For example, one study called Hounds and Homesickness, showed that interacting with dogs can increase life satisfaction and mental wellbeing, whilst another study, called PAWSing student stress (you have to like what they did there) found that spending time with dogs helped students to feel more supported, loved, and relaxed. As a result of such findings, numerous universities have started to introduce programmes with animals for students. For example, here at the University of the West of England, there is an event during fresher’s week called ‘Meet the Guide Dogs’ and there are numerous other points throughout the year when students are given the opportunity to spend time with dogs. 

But surely this is some sort of silly fad? Let’s take a look at a study by Ward-Griffin et al. (2018). They investigated the effects of a one-off therapy dog drop-in session during the exam period at the University of British Columbia. There were 246 first-year students that participated in the study, who were randomly allocated to either the experimental group (petting dogs) or control group (no dogs). All participants were asked to fill out some baseline questionnaires to assess their stress, happiness, energy, social support, and satisfaction with life before their therapy dog session. The students in the experimental group then spent 90 minutes in a room interacting with the dogs and before filling out the same questionnaires again after the session. The control group filled out questionnaires at both time-points too but did not spend any time with dogs.

The researchers found that the experimental group’s stress levels were significantly lower than they were before the therapy session and their happiness and energy levels increased after petting the dogs too. Moreover, the students in the experimental condition had a larger decrease in stress and increase in feelings of social support relative to the control condition. Therefore, like previous studies, this presents more evidence that dogs can help to improve student mental health.

But hang on. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There are few limitations we need to consider. For example, the experiment cannot be certain whether it really was the dogs that helped reduce student’s stress. It could have been just having a distraction from studying, or it could have been a placebo effect (students really believed that dogs would help them), or it could have been a demand characteristic (students worked out what the experimenter wanted). Also, the researchers did not test whether the dogs would be as effective as other treatments for stress (such as meditation, art therapy, or counselling).

But you have to agree that the results are interesting nonetheless. Therapy dog programmes in universities do appear to be having some positive effects, even if we need more empirical research to figure the extent to which dogs are causing these effects. For now though, it’s looking like dogs could be a novel, accessible and fun solution for university students who are feeling ruff (sorry, I couldn't help it).

References

Adams, T., Clark, C., Crowell, V., Duffy, K., Green, M., McEwen, S., ... & Hammonds, F. (2017). The mental health benefits of having dogs on college campuses. Modern Psychological Studies, 22(2), 7.

Binfet, J. T., & Passmore, H. A. (2016). Hounds and homesickness: The effects of an animal-assisted therapeutic intervention for first-year university students. Anthrozoös, 29(3), 441-454.

Dell, C. A., Chalmers, D., Gillett, J., Rohr, B., Nickel, C., Campbell, L., ... & Brydges, M. (2015). PAWSing student stress: A pilot evaluation study of the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program on three university campuses in Canada. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 49(4).

Ward-Griffin, E., Klaiber, P., Collins, H.K., Owens, R.L., Coren, S., Chen, F.S. (2018). Petting away pre-exam stress: the effect of therapy dog sessions on student well-being. Stress and Health, 34(3). 468 – 473.