Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

The Dog-Child Bond: Examining Synchronous Activity-based Animal-Assisted Interventions for Youth with Developmental Disabilities and their Family Dog

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/dz010w898

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  • Approximately one in six children in the United States has a developmental disability (CDC, 2018). Among a wide variety of interventions that have been developed to support the health, wellbeing, and development of youth with disabilities, Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) have become increasingly prevalent. Some AAI involve youth participating with their own pets, however there has been a lack of research on factors that may impact their participation in such AAI, especially research exploring the dog-child bond. The present study aims to address this gap in the literature by evaluating the pre-existing relationships between children with developmental disabilities (between 8 and 17 years old) and their own family dog. Additionally this work served as an important baseline measure for assessing the efficacy of a novel imitation and synchronous activity-based AAI, and analyzing the impact of the intervention on the quality of the dog-child bond. For this project, the dog-child bond was evaluated in terms of the behavioral synchronization exhibited between the dog and child in a synchronization assessment and the dog’s attachment behavior toward the child in a Secure Base Test. The present study is also the first to evaluate dog-child attachment behavior, with comparison to dog-parent and dog-stranger attachment behavior. The findings indicate that family dogs naturally synchronize their behavior with children at a rate higher than would be expected by chance. Additionally, some children already act as a secure base for their family dog, and for others it is possible, through participation in AAI, to change the attachment style between a dog and child to a more secure attachment. This research demonstrates that although dogs’ bonds to primary adult caregivers are often stronger than to children in the home, there are promising qualities to the dog-child bond that provide an excellent foundation for AAI to build upon, and the present imitation and synchronous activity-based AAI shows excellent potential as an intervention for youth with developmental disabilities.
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  • I would like to thank the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for their funding that made this project possible.
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  • Pending Publication
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  • 2019-09-23 to 2021-10-23

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