Does the amount of time undergraduate university students spend interacting with a pet affect their perceived stress levels?
Pet interaction duration.
Explanatory variable.
Undergraduate university students will be randomly assigned to spend a specified amount of time interacting with a pet. The six assigned interaction durations will be 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours. The duration of pet interaction will be measured in minutes.
The possible values are 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes.
Quantitative. The variable represents the duration of pet interaction measured in minutes.
pet_time_min
Each participant will have one assigned pet-interaction duration. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the six duration groups.
Change in perceived stress level.
Response variable.
Participants will rate their perceived stress on a scale from 1 to 10 immediately before and after their assigned pet-interaction period. A rating of 1 represents the lowest level of perceived stress, while a rating of 10 represents the highest level of perceived stress. The change in stress will be calculated by subtracting the pre-interaction stress rating from the post-interaction stress rating.
The initial and final stress ratings can each range from 1 to 10. The calculated change in stress rating can range from -9 to +9 points. A negative value indicates a decrease in perceived stress, a positive value indicates an increase in perceived stress, and zero indicates no change.
Quantitative. The variable represents the numerical change in perceived stress rating.
stress_change
Each participant will provide two stress ratings: one before and one after their assigned pet-interaction period. These two ratings will be used to calculate one change-in-stress value for each participant.
Chute, A., Vihos, J., Johnston, S., Buro, K., & Velupillai, N. (2023). The effect of animal-assisted intervention on undergraduate students’ perception of momentary stress. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1253104. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1253104
This source is relevant to my research question because it examines the relationship between animal-assisted interventions and perceived stress among undergraduate university students. The researchers investigated students’ perceived stress in connection with an animal-assisted intervention, making the study relevant to my plan to measure stress before and after pet interaction. The source provides background for investigating whether different durations of interaction with pets are associated with changes in perceived stress.