Social and emotional therapy dog-assisted interventions in mainstream school settings: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Objective

The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesise the available evidence of the impact of therapy dog-assisted interventions on the social and emotional wellbeing of students in mainstream school settings through the use of the biopsychosocial framework.

Method

The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed, and the inclusion criteria included primary outcomes related to social and emotional wellbeing, such as social competencies and mental health. The studies included were conducted in mainstream educational settings, incorporated a therapy dog, provided a comparison or control group and were in English. The quality of the evidence was assessed with the Evidence Project Risk of Bias tool.

Results

Of 405 studies identified, seven studies with sufficient rigour met the inclusion criteria of evidence to support the use of therapy dog-assisted interventions to improve social and emotional wellbeing within a school setting. Outcomes consisted of psychological, biological, and social variables contributing to overall wellbeing, such as improved self-perceptions, decreased cortisol levels and improvement in social behaviour and empathy.

Conclusions

Findings suggest that therapy dog-assisted interventions can have a positive impact on social behaviours and reducing stress in a school setting; however, there is a need for more rigorous and current research investigating therapy dog-assisted social and emotional wellbeing interventions in mainstream educational settings.

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

1. Therapy dogs can impact psychological, biological, and social aspects of human wellbeing.

2. Growing interest in including therapy dogs as educational partners in school settings.

3. Evidence in school settings has been impeded by methodological limitations, particularly for therapy dog-assisted social and emotional wellbeing interventions.

What this topic adds:

1. Synthesises evidence of therapy dog-assisted social and emotional wellbeing interventions in schools.

2. Identifies the outcomes of these studies: improved self-perceptions, decreased cortisol levels and improvement in social behaviour and empathy.

3. Identifies the need for more rigorous and current research investigating therapy dog-assisted social and emotional wellbeing interventions in mainstream educational settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Dog-assisted
• intervention
• school
• wellbeing
• dog
• social and emotional learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

A protocol was not prepared prior to undertaking the systematic review, and the review was not registered.

No financial or non-financial support was received, and the author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Credit authorship contribution statement

Ms Lena Wintermantel: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Resources, Writing – original draft, review, and editing

Dr Christine Grove: Conceptualization, Resources, Review and editing, Supervision

Dr Linda Henderson: Conceptualization, Resources, Review and editing, Supervision

Dr Stella Laletas: Review, Supervision

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Monash University.