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The Effect of a Real Dog, Toy Dog and Friendly Person on Insecurely Attached Children During a Stressful Task: An Exploratory Study
Department of Special Education, University of Rostock, Germany.
Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle Gruenau and University of Vienna, Department of Behavioural Biology, Austria.
IEMT-Switzerland and Animal Behavior, University of Zurich-Irchel, Switzerland.
Department of Special Education, University of Rostock, Germany.
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2011 (English)In: Anthrozoos, ISSN 0892-7936, E-ISSN 1753-0377, Vol. 24, no 4, p. 349-368Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The regulation of stress by an attachment figure is a key feature of attachment relationships. Previous research suggests that in some cases animal companionship may be regarded as an attachment relationship. This may be particularly important for persons with an insecure or disorganized attachment pattern who may find it more difficult than securely attached individuals to accept social support from humans. In our study, we investigated whether 31 boys (aged 7-12 years) with insecure/disorganized attachment would profit more from the presence of a dog (n = 11) than of a friendly human (n = 11) or a toy dog (n = 9) as support during a socially stressful situation (Trier Social Stress Test for Children, TSST-C). Stress levels were assessed via salivary cortisol recorded five times before, during, and after the TSST-C. The behavior of the children was coded from video recordings. Self-reported stress levels did not significantly differ between the groups before and after the TSST-C. Salivary cortisol, however, was significantly lower in the real dog condition than in the other two conditions (Kruskal-Wallis H test on area under the curve increase (AUCi): chi(2) = 15.17, df = 2, p = 0.001). Also, the more the children stroked the dog, the less pronounced was their stress reaction (r(s) = -0.818, p = 0.002). Our data suggest an important role of physical contact in the stress reducing effect. We conclude that the children investigated profited more from interacting with a friendly dog than with either a human or a toy dog in a stressful situation. We discuss the relevance of our findings for animal-assisted interventions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2011. Vol. 24, no 4, p. 349-368
Keywords [en]
attachment, human-animal attachment, human-dog interaction, social support, stress regulation
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences
Research subject
Medical sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-5501DOI: 10.2752/175303711X13159027359746ISI: 000297567300001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-80054764470OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-5501DiVA, id: diva2:513303
Available from: 2012-04-02 Created: 2012-03-01 Last updated: 2020-07-06Bibliographically approved

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Uvnäs-Moberg, Kerstin

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