Effects of Essential Animal Visitation Program (AVP) Components on Students’ Salivary α-Amylase and Amylase-to-Cortisol Ratios

ABSTRACT

While efficacy trials suggest that Animal Visitation Programs (AVPs) relieve university student stress, their essential components are unknown. Students were randomly assigned to one of four 10-min conditions: AVP touch (n = 73), AVP proximity (n = 62), AVP imagery (n = 57), or AVP waitlist (n = 57). Participants collected salivary cortisol (Cort) and α-amylase (sAA) upon waking and at 15 and 25 min post-condition from which parameters indicating adaptive physiological functioning were calculated. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that students in all three comparison conditions had lower posttest sAA (β_proximity = −0.175, p = 0.017; β_imagery = −0.214, p = 0.003; β_waitlist = −0.138, p = 0.051), lower sAA-to-Cort ratios (AOCs) from pretest to posttest (β_proximity = −0.277, p < 0.001; β_imagery = −0.307, p < 0.001; β_waitlist = −0.172, p = 0.014), lower AOCs from wakeup to posttest (β_proximity = −0.135, p = 0.010; β_imagery = −0.150, p = 0.004; β_waitlist = −0.117, p = 0.021), and a smaller sAA increase from wakeup to posttest (β_proximity = −0.216, p = 0.001; β_imagery = −0.247, p < 0.001; β_waitlist = −0.130, p = 0.033) compared with the AVP touch condition, indicating greater autonomic arousal (sAA) and coordination of stress systems (AOCs) in AVP touch participants. These results suggest that touch is the primary AVP component facilitating adaptive stress-related physiological states among participating university students.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal-assisted intervention
• human–animal interaction
• mental health
• stress
• university

Acknowledgements

We thank our collaborating undergraduate and graduate research assistants, the collaborating staff of our university’s Office of the Dean of Students, and volunteers at the Whitman County Humane Society who made this research study possible. We also extend sincere thanks to the peer reviewers for their suggestions which strengthened the quality of this manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 At traditional, four-year universities in the USA, the term “underclassmen” refers to students in their first (freshman) or second (sophomore) year of undergraduate coursework, while upperclassmen are in the midst of completing their third (junior) or fourth (senior) year of coursework. Students who extend the four-year timeline usually consider themselves seniors in the fifth year and beyond (i.e., “fifth year senior”).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported through the Research Initiative in Human Sciences (grant number 21441312), sponsored by Academic Programs, Washington State University’s Office of Research and Extension.