Brief Report: Above and Beyond Safety: Psychosocial and Biobehavioral Impact of Autism-Assistance Dogs on Autistic Children and their Families

Acceptability and effects of acquiring an assistance or companion dog for families of children on the autism spectrum

PURPOSE

Assistance and companion dogs have numerous positive effects for family of autistic children, such as supporting their rehabilitation and improving their quality of life. To date, very few studies have compared the effects of both types of dogs. This comparison, considering the limited access to assistance dogs, could be helpful for families wanting to adopt a dog.

METHODS

An explanatory sequential design with a mixed-method approach was used. First, 85 parents (nassistance dogs = 57; ncompanion dogs = 28) of children aged between 3 and 17 years old (M = 10.73, SD = 3.67) completed an online questionnaire including sociodemographic questions and the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form-Revised (TARF-R). Then, 17 of these participants (nassistance dogs = 14; ncompanion dogs = 3) completed a semi-structured interview.

RESULTS

The quantitative data analyses showed that parents with assistance dogs were significantly more satisfied: t (83) = -2.12, p = .037, d = 0.49. Significant associations between some sociodemographic variables (e.g., number of children, comorbid condition, reasons for acquiring a dog) and acceptability/satisfaction (TARF-R total scores) were found. The qualitative analysis revealed that families with both dog types observed positive effects.

CONCLUSIONS

In brief, having an assistance dog constitutes a significant added value; nevertheless, both types of dogs are appreciated.

The effects of service dogs for children with autism spectrum disorder and their caregivers: a cross-sectional study

Introduction

Service dogs are an increasingly popular complementary intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. However, despite increasing demand, there remains a lack of empirical research on their potential benefits. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of service dogs on children with autism and their caregivers.

Methods

A total of N = 75 families of children with autism were recruited from a non-profit service dog provider in the US, including n = 39 families previously placed with a service dog and n = 36 families engaging in usual care while on the waitlist. Caregivers completed an online survey containing both self- and proxy-report standardized measures of child, caregiver, and family functioning. Linear regressions modeled the relationship between service dog presence and survey outcomes, controlling for relevant child and caregiver covariates.

Results

Results indicated that having a service dog was associated with significantly better child sleep behaviors, including better sleep initiation and duration and less sleep anxiety/co-sleeping with medium effect sizes. However, service dog presence was not significantly related to child withdrawal, negative emotionality, emotional self-control, hyperactivity, irritability, and lethargy with small effect sizes. For caregivers, having a service dog was not significantly related to standardized measures of caregiver strain, sleep disturbance, depression, or the impact of the child's condition on family functioning with small effect sizes. Supplemental matched case-control analyses confirmed these findings.

Discussion

In conclusion, service dogs were found to positively impact sleep behaviors among children with autism, but may not uniformly relate to other areas of child and caregiver wellbeing. Prospective longitudinal designs, larger sample sizes able to detect small effects, and studies that measure sleep using objective methods are needed to build on these findings.

Effects of service dogs on children with ASD's symptoms and parents' well-being: On the importance of considering those effects with a more systemic perspective

The integration of a service dog can have numerous benefits for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, although integration takes place within a family, little is known about the dynamics of these benefits on the family microsystem. Thus, the aim of our study was to propose a more systemic perspective, not only by investigating the benefits of SD integration, but also by exploring the relationships between improvements in children with ASD, parents' well-being, parenting strategies and the quality of the child-dog relationship. Twenty parent-child with ASD dyads were followed before, as well as 3 and 6 months after service dog integration. At each stage, parents completed an online survey which included: the Autism Behavior Inventory (ABI-S), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y), the Parenting Stress Index Short Version (PSI-SF), the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS) and the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ). First, repeated measure one-way ANOVAs revealed that both children's ASD symptoms and parents' anxiety decreased significantly after service dog integration. Additionally, Spearman correlations revealed that the more ASD symptoms decreased, the more parent's anxiety and parenting stress also decreased. Second, the quality of the child-dog relationship appeared to contribute to those benefits on both children's ASD symptoms and parents' well-being. Interestingly, parenting strategies seemed to adapt according to these benefits and to the quality of the child-dog relationship. Through a more systemic perspective, this study highlighted that the integration of a service dog involved reciprocal and dynamic effects for children with ASD and their parents, and shed new light on the processes that may underlie the effects of a service dog for children with ASD.

Investigating Dog Welfare When Interacting with Autistic Children within Canine-Assisted Occupational Therapy Sessions: A Single Case Study

Human-animal bond is defined as the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and animals. Recent years have seen increasing research regarding the benefits of interaction with animals for autistic children. However, there continue to be limited studies exploring the impact of this interaction on the welfare of therapy dogs. As part of a pilot randomised control trial assessing the efficacy of canine-assisted occupational therapy with autistic children, this project assessed welfare markers of the therapy dog involved. A total of twenty-one saliva samples were taken from the therapy dog to assess cortisol, alpha amylase, and oxytocin concentrations at home and throughout the treatment days. Additionally, six hours of therapy session videos were analysed for stress indicators of canine behaviour. No significant differences were found between days spent at home and treatment days for any of the biomarkers or stress indicators. Results suggest that the therapy dog involved did not experience increased stress resulting from interaction with the autistic children throughout the therapy sessions. This study supports the need for further research regarding therapy dog welfare when interacting with autistic children including an increased sample size of therapy dogs and therapists.

Reading the mind in the eyes in PTSD: Limited Moderation by the presence of a service dog

Persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently experience relationship failures in family and occupational domains resulting in loss of social supports. Prior research has implicated impairments in social cognition. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) measures a key component of social cognition, the ability to infer the internal states of other persons based on features of the eyes region of the face; however, studies administering this popular test to persons with PTSD have yielded mixed results. This study assessed RMET performance in 47 male U.S. military Veterans with chronic, severe PTSD. Employing a within-subjects design that avoided selection biases, it aimed specifically to determine whether components of RMET performance, including accuracy, response latency, and stimulus dwell time, were improved by the company of a service dog, an intervention that has improved social function in other populations. RMET accuracies and response latencies in this PTSD sample were in the normal range. The presence of a familiar service dog did not improve RMET accuracy, reduce response latencies, or increase dwell times. Dog presence increased the speed of visual scanning perhaps consistent with reduced social fear.