A Helping Paw: The Impact of Therapy Dogs on College Student's Stress

Abstract This paper examined the effect of therapy dog intervention in reducing self-reported stress levels among college students. The sample comprised 22 students at Arizona State University, predominantly honors students from Barrett, The Honors College. Participants were randomly assigned to interact with either Beau, a golden retriever, or Charlie, a black lab for 30 minutes. Participants completed pre- and post-test stress surveys adapted from the Perceived Stress Scale (Roberti et. al., 2000). Data analysis revealed a significant decrease in stress levels post-therapy dog intervention, with an average reduction of 41.42%. These findings suggest that therapy dog interventions hold promise as a stress reduction strategy for college students, especially honors college students. Despite limitations such as small sample size, gender imbalance, and the use of group averages, the information this study provides may provide insight into the direction of future research. Future research done with larger sample sizes, individualized assessments, and sample sizes consisting of only honors students is warranted to explore this causality.