AUTHOR=Beetz Andrea 

TITLE=Socio-emotional correlates of a schooldog-teacher-team in the classroom

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2013

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00886

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00886

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>A growing number of teachers in Europe regularly take their dogs with them into the classroom. Limited research points at positive socio-emotional effects of this practice. In this study the effects of a schooldog-teacher-team on socioemotional experiences in school, depression and emotion regulation strategies were investigated in a classroom of third-graders (male <italic>n</italic> = 12, female <italic>n</italic> = 13), which had a schooldog present for 1 day per week in comparison with a control class (male <italic>n</italic> = 11, female <italic>n</italic> = 10). In contrast to the control class, the dog-class students reported a stronger improvement with regard to <italic>positive attitude toward school</italic> (repeated measures ANOVA; <italic>F</italic> = 10.769, <italic>df</italic> = 1, <italic>p</italic> = 0.002) and <italic>positive emotions related to learning</italic> (<italic>F</italic> = 4.479, <italic>df</italic> = 1, <italic>p</italic> = 0.042) over the course of the year. Since a prerequisite of all kinds of effective learning is a positive attitude and mood toward school and learning, the presence of a schooldog-teacher team thus has the potential to support learning.</p>