Spending time regularly petting a therapy dog can significantly reduce anxiety and enhance thinking skills in stressed-out students, an investigation has concluded.
Experts from Washington State University found that stress management programs focussed on therapy dogs were more effective for struggling students.
After completing a four-week-long program with animal therapy, students were found to have improved cognitive skills that persisted for at least four weeks.
The investigation was a follow-up to a 2019 study that showed that petting animals for just ten minutes could reduce students stress in the short-term.
Spending just ten minutes petting a dog (as pictured) can significantly reduce anxiety and enhance thinking skills in stressed-out students, an investigation has concluded
May 12, 2021
Enzo, a Labrador retriever and experienced therapy dog, enjoys some attention and relaxation during the WSU stress management study with students.
By Scott Weybright, College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
For college students under pressure, a dog may be the best stress fighter around.
Programs exclusively focused on petting therapy dogs improved stressed-out students’ thinking and planning skills more effectively than programs that included traditional stress-management information, according to new Washington State University research.
The study was published on May 12 in the journal AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. The paper demonstrated that stressed students still exhibited these cognitive skills improvements up to six weeks after completion of the four-week-long program.
Petting therapy dogs can reduce anxiety, enhance thinking skills in stressed students ANI | Updated: May 12, 2021 15:47 IST
Washington [US], May 12 (ANI): Pet your stress away! For college students under pressure, spending time petting a therapy dog can work as the best stress buster.
The study was published in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.
According to the new Washington State University research, programs exclusively focused on petting therapy dogs improved stressed-out students thinking and planning skills more effectively than programs that included traditional stress-management information.
The study demonstrated that stressed students still exhibited these cognitive skills improvements up to six weeks after completion of the four-week-long program.
Education Next
Jonathan Marks urges a recommitment to reason
by Jonathan Marks
As reviewed by J. Grant Addison
In
Let’s Be Reasonable, Jonathan Marks argues that higher education should rededicate itself to the project of liberal education. Taking his cue from John Locke, Marks describes the aim of liberal education as creating a certain type of person: that is, a reasonable one. “Reason,” as opposed to syllogism or simple debate, is both a habit of mind and a standard to hold while pursuing truth. “Our way of talking captures the sense, still alive in us despite the resolute unseriousness of public speech, that reason is not only an authority but also the kind of authority that is an honor to obey and a disgrace to betray, the sense that there’s such a thing as conduct unbecoming a reasoner,” he writes. Through study of great books and guided engagement with an academic community, liberal education seeks to “answer the question of what we are and what the bes
/ Path to College s Speed Interview Night in January 2020
A college-readiness fellowship in Palm Beach County continues to help low-income, high-achieving students gain access to top-tier colleges and universities. The program’s fourth annual Education Fest is the group s way to celebrate their student’s tenacity amid the pandemic.
The signature part of the event, the competitive
Best Ed-Talk speech contest, features TED Talk-style presentations by students who place a spotlight on issues that affect society.
“They’ve given presentations on outside play time versus screen time. They’ve given presentations on the rise of domestic violence during the pandemic , said Christine Sylvain, the founder and executive director of Path to College. “Our winner last year talked about the prison system and the punishment system and the way that it’s racially, often, motivated and unfair.”