Animal-Assisted Interactions for College Student Mental Health and a Conceptual Model of Practice: A Three-Paper Dissertation

Abstract

People have long found comfort and support by interacting and sharing their lives with animals, and from this interest has led to a specific modality in human healthcare called Animal-Assisted Interactions (AAI). One application of AAI in higher education has gained much attention in the past 10 years. University campuses are a setting where suicide is the second leading cause of death and where college student mental health is in crisis. However, a robust understanding of the development, implementation, and impact of these programs in relation to these immense challenges remains vastly understudied. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore campus-based AAI programs for college student mental health, and as a three-paper manuscript, the information is presented in a progressive fashion. In the first paper, I describe a scoping review study in which I map the literature on campus-based AAI programs for college student mental health. In the second paper, I present the findings from a repeated, six-year cross-sectional study for academic years 2014/15 through 2019/20 using a secondary analysis of existing data from a campus-based AAI program. In the third paper I define a conceptual model of practice that I developed called the PACE—Practitioner, Animal, Client, and Environment—Model for AAI to frame the way AAI programs are established and applied. The implications presented from this study can inform future practice, education, policy, and research in the fields of social work, college student development, and AAI.