Stress
reduction benefits from petting dogs, cats
Washington State University
College is stressful. Students have
classes, papers, and exams. But they also often have work, bills to pay, and so
many other pressures common in modern life.
Many universities have instituted
"Pet Your Stress Away" programs, where students can come in and
interact with cats and/or dogs to help alleviate some of the strain.
Scientists at Washington State
University have recently demonstrated that, in addition to improving students'
moods, these programs can actually get "under the skin" and have
stress-relieving physiological benefits.
"Just 10 minutes can have a significant impact," said Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in WSU's Department of Human Development. "Students in our study that interacted with cats and dogs had a significant reduction in cortisol, a major stress hormone."
Pendry published these findings with
WSU graduate student Jaymie Vandagriff last month in AERA Open, an
open access journal published by the American Educational Research Association.
This is the first study that has
demonstrated reductions in students' cortisol levels during a real-life
intervention rather than in a laboratory setting.
The study involved 249 college
students randomly divided into four groups. The first group received hands-on
interaction in small groups with cats and dogs for 10 minutes. They could pet,
play with, and generally hang out with the animals as they wanted.
To compare effects of different
exposures to animals, the second group observed other people petting animals
while they waited in line for their turn. The third group watched a slideshow
of the same animals available during the intervention, while the fourth group
was "waitlisted."
Those students waited for their turn
quietly for 10 minutes without their phones, reading materials, or other
stimuli, but were told they would experience animal interaction soon.
Several salivary cortisol samples
were collected from each participant, starting in the morning when they woke
up.
Once all the data was crunched from the various samples, the students who interacted directly with the pets showed significantly less cortisol in their saliva after the interaction. These results were found even while considering that some students may have had very high or low levels to begin with.
Once all the data was crunched from the various samples, the students who interacted directly with the pets showed significantly less cortisol in their saliva after the interaction. These results were found even while considering that some students may have had very high or low levels to begin with.
"We already knew that students
enjoy interacting with animals, and that it helps them experience more positive
emotions," Pendry said.
"What we wanted to learn was whether this exposure would help students reduce their stress in a less subjective way. And it did, which is exciting because the reduction of stress hormones may, over time, have significant benefits for physical and mental health."
"What we wanted to learn was whether this exposure would help students reduce their stress in a less subjective way. And it did, which is exciting because the reduction of stress hormones may, over time, have significant benefits for physical and mental health."
Now Pendry and her team are
continuing this work by examining the impact of a four-week-long
animal-assisted stress prevention program. Preliminary results are very
positive, with a follow-up study showing that the findings of the recently
published work hold up.
They hope to publish the final
results of that work in the near future.
