Randomized Control Trial of an Animal-Assisted Intervention With Adjudicated Youth

Phase 3

Completed

• Conditions: Anxiety; Conduct Disorder; Depression
• Interventions: Behavioral: Animal-assisted intervention

• Registration Number: NCT01594606
• Lead Sponsor: Wayne State University

Brief Summary

The project involves testing the efficacy of an animal-assisted intervention (AAI). The AAI consists of a 10-week program in which adjudicated adolescents train shelter dogs and will be compared to a dog walking control group matched for educational content and dog contact time. The investigators expect that the AAI will result in improved empathy skills and that dog attachment will explain these findings. The investigators also explore the extent to which the AAI will improve internalizing and externalizing symptoms in these adolescents.

Detailed Description

Adjudicated adolescents (i.e., teens who have committed criminal offenses and are incarcerated in juvenile detention centers) have deficits in emotion regulation, including empathy skills, and are at risk for a host of poor outcomes including repeat offenses, internalizing symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety), externalizing symptoms (e.g., lying, truancy, fighting). Many of these problems stem from a lack of secure attachment to parents and peers. There is a need for novel and innovative programs to help these teens develop more secure attachments and better empathy skills to prevent poor outcomes. One type of intervention is animal-assisted interventions such as dog training programs. These programs appear to build empathy skills in at-risk youth, which may translate into better peer relations, less psychological distress, and less recidivism. The goal of this study is to test an existing animal-assisted intervention program that is already being used in juvenile detention centers to determine whether it is efficacious in improving adjudicated adolescents' empathy skills and psychological symptoms through building a secure attachment to the training dog.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2012-05
• Study First Submitted: 2012-05-04
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-05-08
• Study First Posted: 2012-05-09
• Primary Completion: 2014-08
• Study Completion: 2015-06
• Status Verified: 2015-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-12-08
• Last Update Posted: 2015-12-09

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 150

Inclusion Criteria

• must be a resident of participating juvenile justice center in Michigan

Exclusion Criteria

• none

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Animal-assisted	Animal-assisted intervention	This group receives the dog training program in which they will be teaching a dog basic obedience skills.
Dog Walking	Animal-assisted intervention	This group will walk a different dog each week but will not engage in dog training.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms as measured by the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report and Youth Self Report forms	baseline and 10 weeks	The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist is a standardized measure of child behavior problems that assesses observers' and children's reports of the children's anxiety and depression (internalizing) and acting out (externalizing) behaviors.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in empathy toward other people	baseline and 10 weeks	An observational measure was created for the purposes of this study in which a trained confederate acts as a potential student for the animal-assisted intervention. The confederate will express anxiety about the program and the participants' responses will be coded by trained raters for empathic content.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Macomb County Juvenile Justice Center; 🇺🇸 Mt. Clemens, Michigan, United States