Furry Friends Fighting Exam Stress
Any student in university or college is familiar with the feelings of stress and anxiety when exams are approaching. To take action, many institutions offer workshops or events to relieve this stress. Recently, Animal-Assisted Activities (AAA) have become more common as a way to alleviate the anxiety related to exams. These activities usually consist of petting and playing with a therapy dog, which has been selected and trained for this specific purpose.
Previous studies have already shown that forming a bond with an animal is beneficial to both parties on an emotional level. It is also known that interacting with therapy animals reduces heart rate, blood pressure and anxiety. This occurs regardless of whether the student already owns a pet or if they regularly see said pet. Therapists who have dogs were also seen more favourably, meaning that students were more likely to disclose personal information and leave more satisfied afterwards.
The authors of this study wanted to find out just how much a therapy dog can help reduce anxiety. They chose to do this by measuring the blood pressure in students before and after a final examination. A previous research study had already looked into blood pressure before and after final examinations, and found a significant correlation between blood pressure and anxiety. The specific goals of this experiment were to determine whether or not therapy dogs actually reduce blood pressure, if this is dependent on the age or gender of the students, and if the effect is different for people who own or have previously owned pets.
The researchers investigated this by recruiting 86 students from Kean University. Students in the control group had their blood pressure taken behind a privacy screen, and then again after a 15-minute interval. Those in the experimental group were permitted to talk to, pet or play with the therapy dogs in these 15 minutes. The data showed no changes in blood pressure in the control group. However, blood pressure did decrease significantly for those in the experimental group. They also found a significant difference in blood pressure related to the gender of the student. There was no significant difference related to pet ownership or age.
Overall, this study proves that therapy dogs are a cost-effective way to lower anxiety in students. This hopefully means that more universities will invest in this type of therapy as a way to reduce stress associated with upcoming exams.
Source:
Jarolman, J.A, Patel, G. (2018). The Effects of Animal-Assisted Activities on College Students Before and After a Final Exam. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 1-11.
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