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. 2024 Jan 3;19(1):e0295702.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295702. eCollection 2024.

Effects of service dogs on children with ASD's symptoms and parents' well-being: On the importance of considering those effects with a more systemic perspective

Nicolas Dollion  1 , Margot Poirier  2 , Florian Auffret  3 , Nathe François  4 , Pierrich Plusquellec  5   6 , Marine Grandgeorge  2 ; Handi’Chiens; Fondation Mira
Affiliations

Effects of service dogs on children with ASD's symptoms and parents' well-being: On the importance of considering those effects with a more systemic perspective

Nicolas Dollion et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The integration of a service dog can have numerous benefits for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, although integration takes place within a family, little is known about the dynamics of these benefits on the family microsystem. Thus, the aim of our study was to propose a more systemic perspective, not only by investigating the benefits of SD integration, but also by exploring the relationships between improvements in children with ASD, parents' well-being, parenting strategies and the quality of the child-dog relationship. Twenty parent-child with ASD dyads were followed before, as well as 3 and 6 months after service dog integration. At each stage, parents completed an online survey which included: the Autism Behavior Inventory (ABI-S), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y), the Parenting Stress Index Short Version (PSI-SF), the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS) and the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ). First, repeated measure one-way ANOVAs revealed that both children's ASD symptoms and parents' anxiety decreased significantly after service dog integration. Additionally, Spearman correlations revealed that the more ASD symptoms decreased, the more parent's anxiety and parenting stress also decreased. Second, the quality of the child-dog relationship appeared to contribute to those benefits on both children's ASD symptoms and parents' well-being. Interestingly, parenting strategies seemed to adapt according to these benefits and to the quality of the child-dog relationship. Through a more systemic perspective, this study highlighted that the integration of a service dog involved reciprocal and dynamic effects for children with ASD and their parents, and shed new light on the processes that may underlie the effects of a service dog for children with ASD.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Participants’ mean scores (±SE) on the ABI-S and the PSI-SF (A), and on the STAI-Y-1 and Y-2 (B) at each of the three stages.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Adrienne and Pierre Sommer Foundation, Handi’Chiens association, Mira Foundation and Brittany Region. This study was performed with a participatory action research approach. Thus, the Mira Foundation and the Handi'Chiens had a role in the development of the study protocol and design, in the recruitment of participant, the interpretation of final results and in the writing of the manuscript. They however had no role in the data collection and analysis, and decision to publish. Other funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.