Dogs at School: A Quantitative Analysis of Parental Perceptions of Canine-Assisted Activities in Schools Mediated by Child Anxiety Score and Use Case

Autor/inn/en	Fynn, Wendy Irene; Runacres, Jessica
Titel	Dogs at School: A Quantitative Analysis of Parental Perceptions of Canine-Assisted Activities in Schools Mediated by Child Anxiety Score and Use Case
Quelle	In: International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 16 (2022), Artikel 4 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Fynn, Wendy Irene)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1976-5681
DOI	10.1186/s40723-022-00097-x
Schlagwörter	Animals; Parent Attitudes; Learning Activities; Anxiety; Use Studies; Foreign Countries; Mental Health; School Counseling; Elementary Secondary Education; Reading Skills; Self Esteem; Interpersonal Competence; Student Behavior; Behavior Modification; Student Motivation; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Animal; Tier; Tiere; Elternverhalten; Lernaktivität; Angst; Benutzerschulung; Ausland; Psychohygiene; School counselling; Pädagogische Beratung; Reading skill; Lesefertigkeit; Self-esteem; Selbstaufmerksamkeit; Interpersonale Kompetenz; Student behaviour; Schülerverhalten; Behaviour modification; Verhaltensänderung; Schulische Motivation; Großbritannien
Abstract	Canine-assisted activities in schools can benefit students' educational, emotional, and social needs. Furthermore, they could be an effective form of non-clinical mental health treatment for children and adolescents. In the United Kingdom, school dogs are growing in popularity, however, little is known about how parents perceive canine-assisted activities as a treatment option. This is important as parental perceptions can influence engagement, whilst lack of awareness can become a barrier to treatment. This study uses a cross-sectional design to quantitatively explore the acceptability of canine-assisted activities amongst UK-based parents (n = 318) of children aged six to 16 (M = 10.12, SD = 3.22). An online survey used a treatment evaluation to determine acceptability across three use-cases. These included a child reading to dogs to improve literacy skills, a child interacting one-to-one to foster greater self-esteem and social skills, and a classroom dog to improve student behaviour and motivation. Additionally, the scale for generalised anxiety disorder was used to rank child anxiety as high or low, where high was a score equal to or above the UK clinical borderline threshold. The results found canine-assisted activities were less acceptable for the behavioural than the reading and social use-cases. Furthermore, parents of children with high anxiety had higher acceptability scores than parents of children with low anxiety for the reading and social use-cases but not for the behavioural use case. These findings suggest that UK parents' acceptability of canine-assisted activities in schools is mediated by child anxiety score. Furthermore, that parents may be less aware of the benefits of classroom dogs than other types of school-based canine-assisted activities. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01