Time with a dog significantly reduces stress in children

It works even better than doing relaxation exercises!

Stress is experienced by all ages. Young children can also feel quite stressed, for example if they have to give an exciting speech in front of the class or take a math test. However, it becomes worrisome when children experience prolonged or excessive stress. “That can have a negative effect on learning, behavior and their health,” says researcher Kerstin Meints in an interview with Scientias.nl† But perhaps dogs can provide relief.

Stress among children

In a new study, Meints and her colleagues looked for ways to reduce stress in schoolchildren. Because among other things a study from 2020 – which coincided with the corona crisis – shows that children can feel quite stressed. “These findings show that 24 percent of the children studied experienced stress most days or even daily,” Meints says. “The cause was largely school or test related.”

Interventions

According to Meints, this is reason enough to look for solutions. “We know that the school performance of children and young people is affected by stress,” she explains. “To alleviate the negative effects of stress in schoolchildren, we need to reduce stressors on the one hand and provide support and effective interventions on the other. At the moment, we actually have very little evidence about which interventions work best. So we decided to test different forms, including relaxation and therapy with dogs.”

Study

The researchers studied 105 eight- to nine-year-old children at four different mainstream schools in the United Kingdom. In addition, they studied 44 children of a similar age who attend special education. In particular, the team measured the value of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva. The children were randomly divided into three groups: 1) the dog group, 2) a relaxation group, 3) the control group. In the dog group, the children interacted with a trained dog and handler for 20 minutes. The relaxation group included a 20-minute relaxation session. Both sessions were held twice a week for four weeks.

dog therapy

The research shows that the trained dogs had a particularly good influence on the children. Immediately after each dog session, the cortisol level dropped significantly. In addition, the cortisol level in the children in the relaxation and control groups steadily increased over the school period. But the researchers did not measure a significant increase in cortisol in the children who were divided into the dog group.

The findings are interesting. Because apparently dogs can make children feel considerably less restless or stressed. Moreover, interacting with a trained dog works even better than doing relaxation exercises. “It means that dog sessions may be good interventions that lead to less stress,” concludes Meints.

Why?

A pressing question, of course, is why dogs are so capable of reducing stress. What is their ‘super power’? “Dogs can provide social support, create a positive social atmosphere and have a calming effect,” Meints sums up. “This is likely part of complex and dynamic interactions between social, psychological and biological factors. In short, dogs are wonderful companions, well able to help children.”

School

Meints hopes that her findings will make children feel more comfortable at school. “Reducing stressors such as providing interventions can go hand in hand,” she says. “Together, they can then help make school a less stressful place. We hope that our results will improve the health and well-being of children.”

Although the researchers have shown that dogs can successfully reduce stress in children, there is still much to discover in this area. “For example, we want to find out more about the ideal amount of time and contact with dogs,” says Meints. “Then we can then look at a suitable and safe roll-out of such interventions in practice.”