Petting Dogs And Cats Can Reduce Stress, Study Suggests

Stress has become an integral part of our life, infiltrating our minds all through. It goes without saying that the condition is bound to have negative impacts on your health and if that is something you have been struggling with, it is best suggested to ensure that you keep petting dogs and cats because the study suggests it can help with stress reduction.

A new study (R) conducted by the researchers from the Washington State University suggests that a mere 10 minute interaction with the dogs and cats resulted in an abrupt reduction in the levels of cortisol in the body of the students who participated in the study. The regulation of the levels of the stress hormone because of interaction with the animals was found as an effective mechanism to handle the stress in individuals.

The college students do suffer from a lot of stress, from their coursework and classes and semesters to handling the part-time job that they are tied to on the side. This does impose haywire in their mind at times, ending up causing issues with their overall health and causing spikes in the levels of cortisol in the body.

There are several universities around which has started a new program titled “Pet your stress away” wherein the students get to come and pet dogs and cats and have a little playtime with them to keep their stress levels in the body in control. This has been found to help alleviate the strain on their minds effectively.

The scientists who worked on this study further suggested saying that this specific study was not just successful in helping manage the signs of the stress in the students but did get under their skin to help them experience the psychological benefits associated with the condition even more so.

Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development suggested saying that even just a 10 minute interaction with the dogs and cats can help in maintaining the signs and symptoms related to stress and even helps in the regulation of the secretion of the cortisol into the bloodstream, thus further helping with this condition even more so.

The findings of the study was evaluated by Pendry along with a WSU graduate student, Jaymie Vandagriff and it was published on AERA Open which is a popular open-access journal that is published by the American Educational Research Association.

This is the very first study which delves into the findings and correlations associated with the levels of cortisol in the students in a real-life intervention rather than the lab setting which has been conducted prior.

This particular study did involve 249 college students who were then divided around into four different groups. The first group of the four did receive hands-on interaction in small groups with the cats as well as the dogs consistently for 10 minutes. They have full reign of not just petting them but playing around and spending time with them without any obstruction.

In order to compare the effects of the study, the second group of students was made to observe the first group play around with the dogs and cats while they waited for their turn. The third group was shown a presentation of the animals involved in this study while the last group was waitlisted completely.

The group which was advised to wait for their turn had to wait for 10 minutes without any kind of phones, reading materials or the other accessory stimuli altogether. But, the only thing that kept them going was the fact that they were told they would be able to indulge in animal interaction pretty soon.

To check the stress levels and such, the salivary cortisol levels were collected from each of the individual participants, that too starting from the morning when they woke up. The researchers that brought together all the data that they accumulated altogether.

Once done, the students who directly interacted with the pets did show a lot lesser level of cortisol in their saliva. These when compared with the prior and existing levels of the high cortisol in some of them did signify that they did get rid of the problem for good.

Concluding everything, Pendry said that it isn’t news that the students do enjoy interacting with the animals all throughout and the same has been associated with imbibing better positive emotions in them. The main objective behind this study was to find whether or not this exposure had any kind of association with the reduction of stress in them in a subjective way. And the best part of this was the fact that the same did have beneficial impacts in reducing the stress which was an added bonus altogether.

Pendry and her team are now working on finding better ways to find the impacts of stress reduction with the four-week-long animal-assisted stress prevention program. Whether or not the same is going to prove beneficial for them or not is a matter of question which is why it is necessary that you do keep an eye out on the same.