An Experimental Examination of the Effectiveness of Animal Assisted Activities for Employee Stress Indicators Improvement in Mexican Organization

ABSTRACT

In the 21^st century, workplace stress is considered globally prevalent and costly to organizations and societies. There is a need for effective and practical interventions to reduce employee stress. This study examines the impact of Animal Assisted Activities (AAA) intervention on employee stress and mood levels in Mexican organizations. Results of an experimental mixed-methods design (3 × 2) study showed that the participants who interacted with the dogs reported a decrease and the lowest levels of stress, anxiety, anger, and sadness, as well as an increase and the highest levels of happiness in comparison to the participants in social gathering and control conditions after the intervention. This study provides empirical evidence for generalizing the use of therapy dogs to the Mexican work context as a viable and effective intervention to facilitate employee wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Stress
• dogs
• México
• mood
• anxiety
• anger
• sadness
• happiness
• animal assisted activity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Ludmila Zhdanova ([email protected]). The data are not publicly available due to Research Ethics Board’s approval restrictions.

Ethics declarations

The manuscript is original. It has not been previously published, and it is not under concurrent consideration elsewhere.

This submission fully follows APA ethical guidelines and has received the approval of the Adler University (Vancouver) Research Ethics Board.