New research shows the merits of puppy rooms
We’ve seen before how lots of universities are now providing puppy rooms to help stressed out students cope with exams. According to a recent EAB report there actually seems to be some evidence that it works:
Researchers at the VCU Center for Human-Animal Interaction (CHAI) conducted a study to determine the effect of visiting therapy dogs on college students’ perceived and physiological stress levels during the week before final exams. All students spent 15 minutes interacting with the dogs and 15 minutes in a control condition without any dogs.
Students’ saliva samples were collected and analyzed for changes in markers of physiological and psychological stress. Students also reported their perceived stress on a scale from zero (none) to nine (severe).
Before the experiments, students’ perceived stress levels averaged from seven to eight. After visiting with therapy dogs, scores decreased by three points on average.
The full article can be found here:
A Randomized Cross-over Exploratory Study of the Effect of Visiting Therapy Dogs on College Student Stress Before Final Exams
Sandra B. Barker , Randolph T. Barker , Nancy L. McCain , Christine M. Schubert
Anthrozoös Vol. 29, Iss. 1, 2016
The EAB report also notes that researchers are currently looking into the effect of having therapy dogs present during final exams, and hope to design a study that determines whether having a dog present affects academic performance. Dog presence may, of course, adversely affect as many students as it helps…
“Bringing therapy dogs onto campus is a low-cost intervention that doesn’t have any side effects,” says lead author Sandra Barker, CHAI director and professor of psychiatry at the VCU School of Medicine. “This study should serve as encouragement for other universities to consider activities with therapy dogs as a way to help address stress before final exams” (Lukits, Wall Street Journal, 3/21; Dreyfuss, VCU News, 3/22).
So it does look like puppy rooms are a positive cost-effective way of relieving students’ exam stress.
Great idea and as ‘mum’ to our new Puppy (the very cute and cuddly Max) I can vouch for the benefit of stress relieving pats, cuddles and ‘walkies’. Just don’t have me on poo and wee duty!