ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives

Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) are increasingly popular as treatments to reduce anxiety. However, there is little empirical evidence testing the mechanisms of action in AAIs, especially among adolescents. We examined whether two possible mechanisms, social interaction and/or physical contact with a therapy dog, might reduce anxiety during a social stressor.

Design and Methods

To test these mechanisms, we randomly assigned 75 adolescents with low, middle, and high levels of social anxiety to complete a laboratory-based social evaluative stressor in one of three conditions: social interaction with a therapy dog (no physical interaction), social plus physical interaction with a therapy dog, or no interaction with a therapy dog. We measured self-reported anxiety and autonomic reactivity during the social stressor to assess the effects of contact with a therapy dog.

Results and Conclusions

We found no evidence that the presence of a real dog, with or without the opportunity to touch it, reduced anxiety or autonomic reactivity or improved cognitive performance relative to the presence of a stuffed dog in the control condition, regardless of levels of preexisting social anxiety.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03249116.

中文翻译：

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基于实验室的社会评价压力源期间治疗犬互动对青少年焦虑的无效影响

摘要

背景和目标

动物辅助干预 (AAI) 作为减轻焦虑的治疗方法越来越受欢迎。然而，几乎没有经验证据测试 AAI 的作用机制，尤其是在青少年中。我们检查了两种可能的机制，社交互动和/或与治疗犬的身体接触，是否可以减少社交压力源期间的焦虑。

设计和方法

为了测试这些机制，我们随机分配了 75 名具有低、中、高社交焦虑水平的青少年，在以下三种条件之一完成基于实验室的社交评估压力源：与治疗犬的社交互动（无身体互动）、社交加与治疗犬的身体互动，或不与治疗犬互动。我们测量了社交压力源期间自我报告的焦虑和自主反应，以评估与治疗犬接触的影响。

结果和结论

我们没有发现任何证据表明真实狗的存在，无论是否有机会触摸它，相对于对照条件下的毛绒狗的存在，减少了焦虑或自主反应或改善了认知能力，无论先前存在的社交焦虑水平如何.

试用注册： 临床试验.gov 标识符： NCT03249116。