Animal-assisted interventions and quality of life: expectations among Spanish University students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/espsiescpsi.v7i3.13264Keywords:
Quality of Life, Animal-Assisted Interventions, Animal-Assisted Therapy, University StudentsAbstract
The present study assessed expectations among university students (N= 474, X= 22.7, SD=5.6 years) towards the pos-sible benefits of animal-assisted interventions on quality of life. Attitudes were measured with the Improving Quality of Life scale, which is an instrument created ad hoc that demonstrated adequate psychometric properties (four easily interpretable factors, with 49% of explained variance and alphas ranging from .76 to .89). The results showed that the participants (from the departments of Social, Health or Educational Sciences) had very positive attitudes (high effect sizes, ES>.80) regardless of training. The experience of sharing households with pets was associated with better expectations. These findings emphasize the high expectations that future professionals in different fields hold regarding animal-assisted interventions, and highlight the current shortcomings in training curricula. The implications of these findings for the development of animal-assisted interventions are discussed.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Aaronson, N. K., Ahmedzai, S., Bergman, B., Bullinger, M., Cull, A., Duez, N. J. et al. (1993). The European organization for research and treatment of cancer QLQ-C30.A quality-of-life instrument for use in international clinical trials in oncology. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 85, 365–376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jnci/85.5.365
Barker, S.B. y Wolen, A.R. (2008). The benefits of humancompanion animal interaction: a review. Journal of Veterinaty Medical Education, 35, 487-495. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jvme.35.4.487
Beck, A.M. y Edwards, N. (2004). El papel de los animales en la vida de los ancianos. Comunicación al V Congreso Internacional Fundación Affinity. Reproducido en Animales de Compañía, Fuente de Salud (pp. 53-70). Barcelona: Fundación Affinity.
Beetz, A., Uvnäs-Moberg, K, Julius, H. y Kotrschal, K. (2012). Psychosocial and psychophysiological effects of human-animal interactions: the posible role of oxitocin. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00234
Berget, B., Ekeberg, O. y Braastad, B.O. (2008). Attitudes to animal-assisted therapy with farm animals among health staff and farmers. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 15, 576-581. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083993
Berget, B. y Grepperud, S. (2011). Animal-assisted interventions for psychiatric patients: beliefs in treatment effects among practitioners. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 3, e91-e96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2011.03.001
Berget, B., Grepperud, S., Aasland, O.G. y Braastad, B.O. (2013). Animal-assisted interventions and psychiatric disorders: knowledge and attitudes among general practitioners, psychiatrist, and psychologists. Society and Animals, 21, 284-293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341244
Black. A.F. Chur-Hansen. A. y Winefield. H.R. (2011). Australian psychologists’ knowledge of and attitudes towards animal-assisted therapy. Clinical Psychologist, 15, 69-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-9552.2011.00026.x
Bowling, A., Hankins, M., Windle, G., Bilotta, C. y Grant, R. (2013). A short measure of quality of life in older age: the performance of the brief Older People’s Quality of Life questionnaire (OPQOL-brief). Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 56, 181-187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2012.08.012
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. (2a ed). NJ, EEUU: Erlbaum.
Crowley-Robinson, P., Fenwick, D.C. y Blackshaw, J.K. (1996). A long-term study of elderly people in nursing homes with visiting and residents dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 47, 137-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(95)01017-3
De la Fuente, Y. (2012). Concepto de calidad de vida. En T. Fernández, R, De Lorenzo y O. Vázquez (Eds.), Diccionario de Trabajo Social (pp. 67). Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Fernández-Ballesteros, R. y Zamarrón-Cassinello, M.D. (2007). Manual del Cuestionario Breve de Calidad de Vida. Madrid: TEA Ediciones.
Filan, S.L. y Llewellyn-Jones, R.H. (2006). Animalassisted therapy for dementia: a review of the literature. International Psychogeriatrics, 18, 597-611. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1041610206003322
Geist, T.S. (2011). Conceptual Framework for Animal Assisted Therapy. Child and Adolescent Social Work, 28, 243-256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10560-011-0231-3
González, M.T. y Landero, R. (2011). Diferencias en estrés percibido, salud mental y física de acuerdo al tipo de relación humano-perro. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 20, 75-86.
Gray, M. y Coates, J. (2012). Environmental ethics for social work. Social work’s responsibility to the non-human world. International Journal of Social Welfare, 21, 239-247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00852.x
Halm. M.A. (2008). The healing power of the humananimal connection. American Journal of Critical Care. 17, 373-376.
Kruger. K.A. y Serpell. J.A. (2010). Animal-assisted interventions in Mental Health: definitions and theoretical foundations. En H.A. Fine (Ed.). Handbook of animal-assisted therapy: Theoretical foundations and guidelines for practice (3ª ed.) (pp.33-48). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
López-Cepero, J., Perea-Mediavilla, M.A., Tejada, A. y Sarasola, J.L. (2014). Validación del Cuestionario de Actitudes ante las Intervenciones Asistidas por Perros (CAINTAP) entre estudiantes universitarios del sur de España. Beneficios percibidos y temores ante las intervenciones asistidas. Manuscrito enviado para su publicación.
López-Cepero, J., Rodríguez-Franco, L., Perea-Mediavilla, M.A., Blanco-Piñero, N., Tejada-Roldán, A. y Blanco-Picabia, A. (2014). Animal-assisted interventions: review of current status and future challenges. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 14, 85-101.
Marino, L. (2012). Construct validity of animal-assisted therapy and activities: how important is the animal in AAT? Anthrozoös, 25(supplement), s139-s151. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175303712X13353430377219
Moody, W.J., King, R. y O’Rourke, S. (2002). Attitudes of paediatric medical ward staff to a dog visitation programme. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 11, 537-544. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2702.2002.00618.x
Moreno-Moreno, J. (2004). Mayores y calidad de vida. Portularia, 4, 187-198.
Nimer. J. y Lundahl. B. (2007). Animal-assisted therapy: A meta-analysis. Anthrozoos, 20, 225-238. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/089279307X224773
Peacock, J., Chur-Hansen, A. y Winefield, H. (2012). Mental Health Implications of Human Attachment to Companion Animals. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 68, 292-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20866
Perea-Mediavilla, M.A. (2013). Actitudes hacia las intervenciones asistidas por animales en centros residenciales para personas mayores. Trabajo presentado para la obtención del título de Máster en Gerontología y Dirección y Gestión de Centros Gerontológicos, Universidad Pablo de Olavide.
Perkins, J., Bartlett, H., Travers, C. y Rand, J. (2008). Dog-Assisted Therapy for older people with dementia: A review. Australasian Journal of Ageing, 27, 177-182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6612.2008.00317.x
Power, M., Bullinger, M. y Harper, A. (1999). The World Health Organization WHOQOL-100. Tests of the universality of quality of life in 15 different cultural groups worldwide.Health Psychology, 18, 495-505. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.18.5.495
Risley-Curtiss, C. (2010). Social Work Practitioners and the Human-Companion Animal Bond: A National Study. Social Work, 55, 38-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sw/55.1.38
Schalock, R.L. y Verdugo, M.A. (2002). Handbook on Quality of Life for Human Service Practitioners. American Association on Mental Retardation.
Souter, M.A. y Miller, M.D. (2007). Do animal-assisted activities effectively treat depression? A metaanalysis. Anthrozoos, 20, 167-180. http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175303707X207954
Upton, P., Maddocks, A., Barnes, P. y Meeuwsen, M. (2013). The Quality of Life in Care Questionnaire: An assessment of feasibility, test–retest reliability and responsiveness in a clinical sample.Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 8, 10-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2012.729871
Velde. B.P. Cipriani. J. y Fisher. G. (2005). Resident and therapist views of animal-assisted therapy: implications for occupational therapy practice. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 52, 43-50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1630.2004.00442.x
Verdugo, M.A., Gómez, L.E. y Arias, B. (2007). La escala integral de calidad de vida, desarrollo y estudio preliminar de sus propiedades psicométricas. Siglo Cero, 224, 37-56. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11181/3170
Verdugo, M.A., Navas, P., Gómez, L.E. y Schalock, R.L. (2012). The concept of quality of life and its role in enhancing human rights in the field of intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 56, 1036-1045. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01585.x
Virués-Ortega, J. y Buela-Casal, G. (2006). Psychophysiological effects of human-animal interaction: theoretical issues and long-term interaction effects. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 194, 52-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.nmd.0000195354.03653.63
Winefield, H.R., Black, A. y Chur-Hansen, A. (2008). Health effects of ownership of and attachment to companion animals in an older population. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 303-310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705500802365532
Yanguas-Lezaun, J.J. (2006). Análisis de la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en la vejez desde una perspectiva multidimensional. Madrid: IMSERSO.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
All contents published in Escritos de Psicología are protected under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. All about this license is available in the following link: <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0>
Users can copy, use, redistribute, share and exhibit publicly as long as:
- The original source and authorship of the material are cited (Journal, Publisher and URL of the work).
- It is not used for comercial purposes.
- The existence of the license and its especifications are mentioned.
There are two sets of authors’ rights: moral and property rights. Moral rights are perpetual prerogatives, unrenounceable, not-transferable, unalienable, imprescriptible and inembargable. According to authors’ rights legislation, Escritos de Psicología recognizes and respects authors moral rights, as well as the ownership of property rights. The property rights are referred to the benefits that are gained by the use or the dissemination of works. Escritos de Psicología is published in an open access form and it is exclusively licenced by any means for doing or authorising distribution, dissemination, reproduction, , adaptation, translation or arrangement of works.
Authors are responsable for obtaining the necessary permission to use copyrighted images.
10.png)
ESCRITOS DE PSICOLOGÍA por 