Evaluating the Role of a Socially Assistive Robot in Children's Mental Health Care.

Socially assistive robots (SARs) present a promising intervention for addressing the increasing prevalence of childhood stress. This innovative technology has become increasingly common in practical implementation. However, empirical support has not kept pace with the robots' growing popularity.

The Influence of Interactions with Dogs on Affect, Anxiety, and Arousal in Children.

Interactions with animals represent a promising way to reduce the burden of childhood mental illness on a large scale. However, the specific effects of child-animal interactions are not yet well-established. This study provides a carefully controlled demonstration that unstructured interactions with dogs can improve clinically relevant symptoms in children.

Perceptions of animal-assisted interventions: The influence of attitudes toward companion animals.

Objective: We tested whether people are prone toward positive perceptions of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs). We additionally evaluated whether this effect is stronger for people who have positive attitudes toward companion animals.

Method: We presented 210 participants with fictitious news reports, each describing a study of an AAI or a control intervention.

Maternal mind-mindedness and toddler behavior problems: The moderating role of maternal trauma and posttraumatic stress.

Maternal mind-mindedness (MM) reflects a caregiver's tendency to view a child as an individual with an independent mind. Research has linked higher MM with more favorable parenting and child adaptation. The aim of this study was to examine whether MM was associated with toddlers' behavior problems and competence, and the moderating role of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample (N = 212) of adolescent mothers and their toddlers.

Effects of Interactions With Animals On Human Psychological Distress.

Context: Human-animal interaction (HAI) is widely used as a method of reducing psychological distress. However, research findings in support of HAI have not kept pace with the widespread prevalence in practice.

Objective: I review and synthesize the quantitative evidence for the influence of HAI on psychological distress and outline future directions for research.

The impact of psychopathology, race, and environmental context on violent offending in a male adolescent sample.

Research has identified a multitude of demographic, psychological, and contextual factors that are associated with violent offending among youth. However, much of the previous research has focused on single factors, and little is known about the effects of these various factors in tandem. The present study examines whether certain community factors impact the effects of race and psychopathology on violent crime.

Additional Evidence is Needed to Recommend Acquiring a Dog to Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Response to Wright and Colleagues.

Caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder are vulnerable to overstated benefits of interventions, and such overstatements are common with interventions involving animals. This response to Wright, Hall, Hames, Hardmin, Mills, the Paws Team, and Mills' (2015) article, "Acquiring a Pet Dog Significantly Reduces Stress of Primary Careers for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Prospective Case Control Study," details why that study's conclusions are premature. Specific limitations of the study are detailed, including overstatements of the supportive literature, problems with the design, and mismatch between the findings and conclusions.