Observing an Intervention to Reduce Treatment Stigma of College Students: Canine-Assisted Counseling vs. Treatment as Usual

Young adult college students are a group particularly troubled with mental health concerns, especially after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a seemingly greater understanding of mental health treatment and its benefits, there is still a large portion of this population that refuses treatment based on preconceived notions and stigma. However, animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) are one type of mental health resource that college students tend to have a greater interest in. Studies show that students fare well in these intervention settings and actively seek them out when they are offered. Therefore, it is possible that participating in an AAI might lower college students' feelings of stigma toward mental health treatment. To determine if an AAI, specifically canine-assisted counseling (CAC), could decrease stigma toward mental health treatment, a pre–post study was conducted in which stigma was measured using the Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale. In total, 88 students participated; they were allocated to either a Video Control or Video Experimental CAC group and had their pre- and post-stigma scores analyzed using a paired t-test. The results indicate that those in the experimental CAC group had significant reductions in feelings of mental health treatment stigma in several categories (p < 0.001): Effectiveness, Goodness, Healing, Empowering, Satisfaction, and Desirability. Those in the control group had no significant changes in feelings of stigma. Additionally, overall feelings of stigma were reduced significantly in the experimental group when compared with the control group. Further research is necessary to determine if an in-person CAC intervention could provide a greater reduction in feelings of stigma toward mental health treatment.