| The purpose of this study was to test experimentally whether an animal-assisted intervention would have an effect on middle school students' anxiety level and amount and type of emotional self-disclosure during an interview that examined exposure to community violence. Participants were 42 students in grades 6 to 8. Twenty students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (i.e., presence of a therapy rabbit) and twenty-two students were randomly assigned to the control group (i.e., absence of a therapy rabbit). Each student participated in a pre-interview, a community violence interview, and a post-interview during which his/her anxiety levels were measured.; During the community violence interviews, students were asked open- and closed-ended questions about violence they witnessed in their neighborhoods (e.g., seeing the police arrest someone, seeing someone get shot). Self-disclosure was measured as Total Word Count and Frequency of Negative Emotion Words expressed during the community violence interviews. Students' Immediate Anxiety, Greatest Anxiety and Delayed Anxiety were measured at the conclusion of the interviews. During the post-interviews, students were asked to describe their experience participating in the study. Students in the experimental group were also asked questions about their experience with the therapy rabbit.; Students in the total sample reported being exposed to a high level of community violence, with 59% witnessing between four to seven violent events in their neighborhoods. All students in the study reported witnessing at least one violent event. Hearing gunshots was the most frequently reported event, and 38% of students knew either the victim or perpetrator of the violent events they witnessed. Among students in the experimental group, all pet the therapy rabbit before and/or during the community violence interviews. Approximately 80% of students chose to hold the therapy rabbit in their laps while expressing their thoughts and feelings about witnessing an upsetting violent event in their neighborhoods.; Because this study had a small sample size, interpretation of quantitative findings was based on the magnitude and direction of the effect sizes. Pre-interview anxiety ratings were obtained by two independent interviewers. Their ratings were highly correlated (r = .88). The animal-assisted intervention had a medium effect on students' Greatest Anxiety and level of self-disclosure (i.e., as measured by Frequency of Negative Emotion Words). Contrary to the hypothesis, students in the experimental group compared to students in the control group reported higher Greatest Anxiety and fewer Negative Emotion Words (e.g., scared, sad). Although the results were in the predicted direction, the animal-assisted intervention only had a small effect on students' Immediate Anxiety, Delayed Anxiety and Total Word Count. The animal-assisted intervention produced a lower Immediate Anxiety, lower Delayed Anxiety and a higher Total Word Count than the control group.; Contrary to the hypothesis, lower anxiety (i.e., Immediate Anxiety, Greatest Anxiety, and Delayed Anxiety) was not found to be significantly related to greater self-disclosure (i.e., as measured by Total Word Count and Frequency of Negative Emotion Words). Contrary to the null hypothesis, students in the experimental group who owned pets reported lower Greatest Anxiety (p = .01) than students in the control group who owned pets. However, there was no significant difference with Immediate Anxiety, Delayed Anxiety, Total Word Count, and students' Frequency of Negative Emotion Words.; Although it was in the predicted direction, there was a small effect size with girls reporting slightly greater anxiety than boys on all measures of anxiety. Post-hoc findings revealed that female students compared to male students in the experimental group reported higher Immediate Anxiety and Delayed Anxiety. Female students in the experimental group, however, repor... |
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