What is the Human-Animal Bond? a mutually beneficial and dynamic - PDF document

9/14/2017 Nancy R. Gee, PhD • Professor of Psychology State University of New York, Fredonia • HAI Research Manager WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition • Human Animal Bond Advisory Board Member Pet Partners What is the Human-Animal Bond? …a mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship between people and other animals that is influenced by behaviors that are essential to the health and well-being of both – Definition of the Human-Companion Animal Bond (HCAB) taken from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) 2006 1

9/14/2017 An enduring and important relationship… UK • 7.5 M cats • 8.5 M dogs EU • 60+ M cats • 66+ M dogs 10,000 years ago US • 2/3 of all homes include a pet CA • 7 M cats • 6.4 M dogs Pompeii Mosaic 79 AD General Health Benefits • Over the past 40 years many studies have reported health benefits from pet ownership • Following acquisition of a pet, owners reported: • Fewer minor health complaints (e.g. headaches) • Improvements in self-reported psychological well being • Benefits were sustained over time for dog owners • Dog owners increased recreational walking • Pet owners compared to non-pet owners: • Have lower blood pressure, plasma triglycerides and cholesterol • Are more likely to be alive one year after a heart-attack (dog owners) 2

9/14/2017 Children who have pets… • Self esteem • Empathy • Sick days from school • Popularity with classmates • Allergies & • Involvement in asthma hobbies, clubs, • Obese 5 & 6 & chores year olds But… Evidence base is weak to mixed: • Correlational • Lack of control conditions • Poorly designed studies/surveys • Hard to assign pet ownership My research with preschoolers… • Empirical designs • Random Dog Condition relative to No Task • Assignment to conditions Dog or Stuffed Dog • Presentation of stimuli Execution of Motor-skills Faster with no loss of accuracy • Counterbalancing Following Instructions • Repeated measures Motor-skills Higher Adherence Instructions • Reduces error variance • Multiple data points per subject Object Recognition Exp 1 Fewer prompts needed • Small sample sizes Object Recognition Exp 2 Fewer prompts needed Memory • Medium to large effect sizes Obect Recognition Faster and more accurate Categorization Match-to-Sample Fewer irrelevant choices Match-to-Category Larger Animation Effect Language Production Story Telling Greater word production 3

9/14/2017 Ongoing studies investigating the impact of animals in education… • Examines the impact of pet ownership on education related variables in children • Examines the impact of interacting with dogs on empathy, self-esteem, stress & anxiety, and cognitive & language variables in children • Examines the impact of dogs on academic stress exposure and resulting academic performance of university students Why Study Animals in Education? • Practice is widespread: • Animal welfare concerns need to be addressed • Survey of 1,400 teachers in accredited programs • 67% animals in classroom Uttley (2013) • Gap in the literature: • Very little work on efficacy of • “State of the art” such practices • Provides a way to help students deepen their knowledge, pique their interests, and serve as a motivational influence Hummel & Randler (2012) 4

9/14/2017 Connection to Theories of Early Childhood Education • Dewey : espoused the importance of allowing children’s interests to form the basis of curriculum planning • Montesorri : children take and learn responsibility by direct interaction with their environment • Erikson : examined the impact of culture and society on development • Piaget : children construct their own knowledge by interacting with their environment • Vygotsky : children learn by doing and talking about their experiences (language production) and develop aspects of cognition (executive function) as part of these experiences Mooney (2013) Published February 2017 • Current state of the research • Resource for: • Educators • Researchers • Volunteers • Recommendations for: • Research Design • Best Practice • Animal Welfare • Discussion of legal issues 5

9/14/2017 What do we know about reading to dogs programs? Literature Searched • PubMed (1946-present) • Science Direct (1946-present) • American Doctoral Dissertations (1933-1955) • Canadian Reference Centre (1901-present • Education Source (1900- present) • ERIC (1966-present) • Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition (1952-present) • Masterfile Premier (1921-present) • PsychArticles (1894-present) • PsychInfo (1987-present) • Psychology & Behavioural Sciences Collection (1930-present) • Social Sciences Full Text (1972-present) • Google Scholar (1946-present) 6

9/14/2017 7

9/14/2017 OCEBM – Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine • Expert opinion without critical appraisal, or based on physiology, bench research. Level 5 Strength of Evidence • Case series, and poor quality cohort and case control studies Level 4 • b – Individual case-control study • a – systematic review of case-control studies Level 3 • c – outcomes research, ecological studies • b – individual cohort studies, including low quality RCTs Level 2 • a – systematic review of cohort studies • c – all or none case series • b – individual RCTs with narrow confidence interval Level 1 • a – systematic review of RCTs 48 studies met the search criteria • Expert opinion without critical appraisal, or based on physiology, bench research. • 27 studies - most were ad hoc reports as evidenced by teachers or dog Level 5 handlers. Strength of Evidence • Case series, and poor quality cohort and case control studies • 13 studies - most followed the progress of a small group of children, but did not use standardized measures or did not include a control group. Level 4 • Outcomes research • 7 studies – most used a standard or objective approach to measure effects, but Level 2c did not report effect sizes and/or inferential statistics • Individual cohort studies, including low quality randomized control trials. • 1 study – used random assignment to conditions and a standardized measure of reading ability Level 2b 8

9/14/2017 Summary • 48 studies met search criteria – all reported positive effects of children reading to dogs • In particular – studies reported behavioral improvements that may improve the environment in which reading is practiced. • Quality of evidence is low • Majority of studies categorized as OCEBM level 5 (lowest level) • Most based on ad hoc reports – not subject to peer review, small sample sizes and failed to use blind scoring or consider long term effects. Study with best OCEBM rating 9

9/14/2017 Students - identified as poor readers • 102 - 3 rd graders – age 7-13 ( M = 8.2) • 27 – read to a dog (volunteer present) • 24 – read to an adult • 26 – read to a teddy bear (adult present) • 10 week program (20 min per week) • 9 dogs: Golden Retriever (4), Boxer, King Charles Cavalier, Jack Russell cross, Maltese & Weimaraner • Data were collected: • Before program • Upon program completion • 8-week follow up • Standardized measure: • Neale Analysis of Reading Ability Results • Groups were not significantly different before the start of program. • The 10-week program did result in significant differences: 10

9/14/2017 Group Differences 7.8 7.7 7.6 7.5 Reading 7.4 Accuracy 7.3 Results 7.2 7.1 7 6.9 Dog Adult Teddy Bear Reading Accuracy Interaction 11

9/14/2017 Reading Rate Interaction Reading Comprehension 12

9/14/2017 Reading Comprehension Over Time Conclusions from the study? • Reading to dogs was beneficial for reading rate, accuracy and comprehension. • BUT • Applies to poor readers in 3 rd grade. • Seems to be more effective for boys in that group than girls. • Children in the dog group received more free books than kids in the other condition – that may have provided additional motivation beyond the presence of the dog. 13

9/14/2017 Conclusions from the literature review • Dogs may improve wider learning environment for children • Increasing positive attitudes (evidence by smiling and laughing) during reading practice • Improvement in attitude/motivation/engagement • Improve confidence (self-esteem and self-concept) • Provide social support and companionship • Decreasing displays of problematic behaviors • Decreasing anxiety (calming effect) How does this work? 14

9/14/2017 Cautions… • Quality of most of the evidence in this area is low (level 5). • Pets are not a panacea. • More research is needed! • Please volunteer for these research projects! • Despite criticisms of existing research we do know some things… 15