Bella, the Therapy Dog!
Author: Chloe Penton | Major: Exercise Science | Semester: Spring 2024
My name is Chloe Penton, and I am in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. My major is Exercise Science, with a minor in Psychology. My mentor is Dr. Allison Scott in the Nursing department. Our upcoming research plans include recruiting more students to participate in the 24 Fall semester and continuing to collect data expanding on animal-assisted therapy research. Animal-assisted therapy is relatively new, so there is room to add more research findings.
Our research is studying the effect of individual animal-assisted therapy session versus group study session on student anxiety. Students in the study must be undergraduate students at the University of Arkansas and participate in an individual study session with the therapy dog, Bella, or in a group study session with other students on the day of an exam. The participant completes a pre-test questionnaire before meeting with Bella or studying with other students. They complete twenty minutes with Bella or studying and finally complete a post-test questionnaire. This pre-and-post questionnaire looks at the participant’s anxiety levels, and this is where Dr. Scott and I look to see if there is a significant difference in a student’s anxiety that met with Bella before their exam or a student’s anxiety that had a group study session before their exam.
Our research has a real-world impact as this form of therapy could be used in many different healthcare settings that focus on mental health. Animal-assisted therapy has been growing more popular in places such as schools, nursing homes, and hospitals. These places all have people who are experiencing life challenges that may cause mental health struggles. With the animal-assisted therapy that has already taken place, research has shown that animal-assisted therapy can help improve those mental health struggles. Our research is specifically designed for undergraduate students at the University of Arkansas and how animal-assisted therapy can help improve mental health and well-being in undergraduate college students.
I was in my Honors Exercise Thesis class in sophomore year, and Dr. Gallagher, my professor, told the class about a College for Education and Health Professions website where professors would announce an opening to work on their research, and that is where I found Dr. Scott’s animal-assisted therapy research. Once I officially worked with her on this research, I learned what it takes to do research. I learned how to write a research grant through this whole process, and I had only written one for a class before working on the real thing.
Dr. Scott and I have been the main two working on this research, along with Logan, Dr. Scott’s honors intern. Other faculty members in the nursing department and the exercise science department have been very helpful in advertising our study to students as well. In this upcoming semester, Dr. Scott and I will be working heavily on recruiting more students to participate in the study so that we have a significant sample size to collect data from. We are excited to continue this research in the fall.