Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
5-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Nursing
Major Professor
Lora H. Beebe
Committee Members
Zenithson Ng, Patricia Roberson, Sandra Thomas
Abstract
Interaction with animals may offer numerous benefits for human health. In addition to benefits for physical health, Animal Assisted Therapies (AAT) interactions are beneficial for mental health. In particular, animal interactions may offer improvement in patients with depression and anxiety. While the majority of AAT research focuses on pets, animal assisted therapies with farm animals (AATF) also have been found to be beneficial.
AATF is a component of the Green Care therapeutic approach. Green Care is described as a cluster of nature-based therapeutic interventions to promote health in humans. AATF like AAT has undeniable benefits for people who suffer from mental health disorders. In the past, most AATF interventions utilized livestock animals like cows, pigs, sheep, and goats. Current research involved planning and creation of a duck-based AATF clinical intervention for persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) based upon Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory.
The intervention included participants’ interaction with ducks for twelve weeks, twice a week for one hour. Participants engaged in handling, feeding, watering, herding, petting, and hand feeding the ducks. Participants completed HADS and GSE questionnaires to evaluate anxiety, depression and self-efficacy at baseline, at the conclusion of the 12-week intervention, and again four weeks later. The data analysis revealed that there was a decrease in participant’s anxiety level immediately after the intervention. Meanwhile, there were no statistically significant changes in depression of self-efficacy levels. This intervention was accepted very well by the participants; the overwhelming majority of the participants shared that working with ducks made them happy.
Qualitative data were collected via interviews. PI conducted ten interviews with the participants. During these interviews the participants were asked about their experiences of working with ducks, likes and dislikes when interacting with ducks, and how working with ducks made them feel. The interviews were transcribed and deidentified, transcripts will be analyzed for common themes. The analysis of these data will be reported separately at a later time.
The current research findings may have further implications for practice, education, research and policy development. Benefits of the current research may translate into improvement of rehabilitation activities for the persons with TBI.
Recommended Citation
Sargsyan, Arshak Alex, "Farm Animal Assisted Therapy Intervention with Ducks for Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2024.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/10162