College Student Mental Health in an Animal-Assisted Intervention Program: A Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT

There is a growing trend of animal-assisted intervention (AAI) programs on college campuses to improve mental health among college students through human–animal interactions. The purpose of this preliminary research was to evaluate one program to determine if AAI improved participants’ short-term emotional state as well as influenced the quality of the human–animal interaction. Quantitative data were collected using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and the Human–Animal Interaction Scale. Results indicated a positive change in students’ emotional state after interactions with therapy animals. Time spent interacting with the therapy animals had a significant effect on the human–animal interaction score but no effect on affect. These findings support the utility of human–animal relationships in improving college student mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal-assisted therapy
• mental health
• relationship
• creativity in counseling

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the therapy animals and handlers who participated in this study as well as the student volunteers who helped with data collection.