Oral Presentation The International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ): 27th Annual Conference 2018

The role of Canine Assisted Intervention on improving self-perception in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. (#74)

Heather L Johnson 1 , Annamarie Stehli 1 , Lakes D Lakes 1 , Abdullah M. Maryam 1 , Sabrina EB Schuck 1
  1. Child Development Center, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States

Introduction: Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been found to demonstrate poor self-awareness (Hoza et al., 2002; Hoza et al., 2004), and this deficit is a significant mediator of poor response to feedback and risk for poor outcomes (Hoza et al., 2013).  Evidence suggests deficits in executive function may contribute to poor self-awareness (McQuade et al., 2011).  Human animal interaction may act as a catalyst for activating systems of executive function, particularly attention (Gee et al., 2012; Schuck et al., in press).  Heightened attention during animal assisted interventions may increase response to session feedback, leading to greater improvement in functioning. 

Methodology: Children’s reports of perceived competence (Self-Perception Profile for Children; Harter, 1985) were collected in the course of a randomized controlled trial of psychosocial intervention with or without Canine Assisted Intervention (CAI) for children with ADHD (n= 80, ages 7-9, 71% male).  Non-parametric methods were used due to the ordinal nature of the items resulting in skewed distributions of the subscales.  Moreover, baseline means and medians indicated participant ratings were initially high, producing a ceiling effect.  Thus, to test the hypothesis that CAI impacts self-perceptions, stratified Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests (SAS NPAR1WAY procedure) were used to compare pre-treatment to post-treatment ratings. 

Main Results: Analyses comparing children’s responses pre- and post-treatment indicated behavioral conduct, scholastic and social competence scores were significantly higher at post-treatment in the CAI group (Z = -2.32, p = .021, Z = -2.631, p = .008 and Z = -2.541, p = .011, respectively), whereas pre-post-treatment differences were not found for the children in the treatment group without CAI.

Principal Conclusions and Implications for the Field:  Results have implications for understanding the role of CAI and children’s response to feedback provided during interaction with therapy dogs.  The high (favorable) self-ratings pre-treatment suggested a positive illusory bias among the children and has implications for interpreting improved scores.  Immediate future directions include examining associations between parent reports of social skills and problem behaviors (SSIS-P; Social Skills Improvement System, Gresham & Elliott, 2008). Findings suggest that CAI may contribute to increased positive self-perceptions.

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