Myth: Therapy dogs do not help reduce stress for university students.
Truth: This is false.
Therapy dogs are trained to provide love, comfort, and guidance to individuals. Therapy dogs are known to help mental health by reducing stress and relieving anxiety. Many university students struggle with maintaining good mental health. University students have strict deadlines, a heavy workload, and increased responsibilities if they are living away from home.
Therapy dogs have been introduced to many university campuses in an attempt to help students reduce stress. A study published in the Journal of Mental Health analyzed how efficient therapy dogs were in helping university students reduce stress. The study was conducted at the University of British Columbia in Canada over three semesters. Researchers monitored students and their use of the therapy dogs and found that the dogs reduced student stress significantly. Read more about the study here.
Reference
- Binfet JT, Passmore HA, Cebry A, Struik K & McKay C. (2018). Reducing university students’ stress through a drop-in canine-therapy program. Journal of Mental Health, 27(3), 197-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2017.1417551
