WSU - Latest News Update, Information, Photos & Videos on WSU at Lokmat Times

To help students beat the college stress, many universities, around the world, keep cats and dogs in the campus, as part of "Pet Your Stress Away" programs, where students can come in and interact with the mals to help alleviate some of the strain.A team of researchers has recently demonstrated that, in addition to improving students' moods, these programs can actually get "under the skin" and have stress-relieving physiological benefits."Just 10 minutes can have a significant impact. Students in our study that interacted with cats and dogs had a significant reduction in cortisol, a major stress hormone," Patricia Pendry, an associate professor in WSU's Department of Human Development explained.According to the researchers, this is the first study that has demonstrated reductions in students' cortisol levels during a real-life intervention rather than in a laboratory setting. The findings were published in the Journal of AERA Open.The study involved 249 college students randomly divided into four groups. The first group received hands-on interaction in small groups with cats and dogs for 10 minutes. They could pet, play with, and generally hang out with the mals as they wanted.To compare the effects of different exposures to mals, the second group observed other people petting mals while they waited in line for their turn. The third group watched a slideshow of the same mals available during the intervention, while the fourth group was "waitlisted."Those students waited for their turn quietly for 10 minutes without their phones, reading materials, or other stimuli, but were told they would experience mal interaction soon.Several salivary cortisol samples were collected from each participant, starting in the morning when they woke up. Once all the data was crunched from the various samples, the students who interacted directly with the pets showed significantly less cortisol in their saliva after the interaction. These results were found even while considering that some students may have had very high or low levels to begin with."We already knew that students enjoy interacting with mals, and that it helps them experience more positive emotions. What we wanted to learn was whether this exposure would help students reduce their stress in a less subjective way. And it did, which is exciting because the reduction of stress hormones may, over time, have significant benefits for physical and mental health," researchers suggested.( With inputs from ANI )

Home

City

Latest News

Cricket

LT Premium

National

International

Maharashtra

Opinions

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Nagpur

Entertainment

Photos

Business

Technology

Sports

Lifestyle

Social Viral

Lokmat Games

Health

Narendra Modi

Lok Sabha Election 2024

Heatwave In India

Mumbai Water Cut

Maharashtra Lok Sabha Election

IPL 2024

WsuFOLLOW

Wsu, Latest News

Technology :Study finds high protein diet might harm polar bears

A recent study has found that a high protein diet may be linked to kidney disease and shortened lifespans in polar bears kept in zoos. ...

Lifestyle :Instagram may develop friendships in real life: Study

Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing platform Instagram helps young adults develop friendships in real life, especially those who are more hesitant to try new experiences, a new study suggests. ...

Lifestyle :Researchers point out stress reduction benefits from petting dogs, cats

To help students beat the college stress, many universities, around the world, keep cats and dogs in the campus, as part of "Pet Your Stress Away" programs, where students can come in and interact with the mals to help alleviate some of the strain. ...