New research has found that the presence of dogs in classrooms lowers stress in elementary school students. The study found that spending 20 minutes with a dog twice per week was better at reducing stress in students than meditation. The benefits of these dog meetings were also felt by students with special needs.
Stress is known to badly affect children’s learning, behavior, and health. This has led schools to think about ways to reduce stress. Some common methods include yoga, mindfulness, meditation, physical activity, and having animals in classrooms. Researchers from the University of Lincoln did an experiment in which children were randomly separated into three groups. One group spent time with a dog, one group did relaxation sessions, and the third did neither. Students in the dog group spent 20 minutes with a trained dog and handler twice per week for four weeks. The relaxation group spent the same amount of time doing meditation exercises. The children in the dog group had “significantly lower” cortisol levels, while those in the relaxation group recorded an increase in cortisol levels over the school year. This proves that the dogs helped lower the stress, while the other groups didn’t, or were still stressed. The study also found that stress was lowest in the children in the dog group immediately after their sessions with the dogs. Researchers say more research is needed to discover the amount of time and contact with dogs that will have the most significant effect on children’s stress levels.
Stress is known to badly affect children’s learning, behavior, and health. This has led schools to think about ways to reduce stress. Some common methods include yoga, mindfulness, meditation, physical activity, and having animals in classrooms. Researchers from the University of Lincoln did an experiment in which children were randomly separated into three groups. One group spent time with a dog, one group did relaxation sessions, and the third did neither. Students in the dog group spent 20 minutes with a trained dog and handler twice per week for four weeks. The relaxation group spent the same amount of time doing meditation exercises. The children in the dog group had “significantly lower” cortisol levels, while those in the relaxation group recorded an increase in cortisol levels over the school year. This proves that the dogs helped lower the stress, while the other groups didn’t, or were still stressed. The study also found that stress was lowest in the children in the dog group immediately after their sessions with the dogs. Researchers say more research is needed to discover the amount of time and contact with dogs that will have the most significant effect on children’s stress levels.
