Utilizing Animal-Assisted Interventions to Support Mental Health Among Children in San Antonio: Exploring Knowledge, Attitudes, & Perceptions Among School Staff and Parents

As the research on early trauma and adverse childhood experiences has grown, the San Antonio, TX community has made significant efforts towards becoming trauma informed and expanding interventions that can help support mental health among children. Among interventions that have been considered or utilized in local school districts are Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs), including therapy dog visits and animal-assisted crisis response. Despite the growing use of such interventions, no efforts have been made to understand existing knowledge, attitudes, or perceptions relating to AAIs among school stakeholders. To address this gap, the current research project aimed to investigate current knowledge and perceptions relating to animals and AAIs among school staff using semistructured interviews (Paper 1). A survey was also implemented to investigate parent knowledge of AAIs, attitudes towards animals/pets, and perceptions relating to children’s mental health and AAIs in schools (Paper 2). Through convenience and purposive sampling, school staff and parents were recruited from two San Antonio school districts. Given restricted access to school campuses amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, parents and staff were contacted via email as a primary method for recruitment. Parent surveys were distributed via email (or sent home with children doing in person learning) and school staff interviews were conducted virtually. Data from interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, while survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Additional analyses were conducted to assess whether there were associations between pet attitudes, knowledge of AAIs/benefits of animals (AAI knowledge), and perceptions of AAIs (AAI perceptions). Paper 1 findings demonstrated that school staff had knowledge of the health benefits of human-animal interactions and perceived AAIs to be supportive of emotional well-being, school values and culture, and social-emotional skills among children. Paper 2 findings demonstrated that parents also had knowledge of benefits and had positive attitudes towards pets, as well as positive perceptions towards AAIs in schools. Additionally, there was a positive association between pet attitudes and AAI perceptions, as well as a positive association between AAI knowledge and AAI perceptions. While findings from both papers demonstrated favor towards the implementation of AAIs, both staff and parents voiced potential concerns or challenges regarding children and animal’s safety/well-being that would need to be addressed in the planning phase