Social Working Dogs Support to Children With Problematic School Absence

NCT07168460 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: 2022-01706-01N2021-0022
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 64
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this project is to investigate whether trained social service dogs can increase students' school attendance and school motivation, and ultimately contribute to students reaching the basic learning goals. Main research questions are:

1. 1.What are the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of having social service dogs support at schools to improve learning outcome and school attendance in students with problematic school absence?
2. 2.What are the risks to the health and well-being of those social working dogs when they work in the school environment as well as the challenges in bringing dogs to the schools?

Conditions

Learning Development; Quality of Life; School Attendance

Keywords

problematic school absence; school attendance; learning achievement; quality of life

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• School absenteeism

  Children's weekly school attendance (%) were retrieved from school registration records on children's attendance.

  T0-The whole semester before intervention (5 months pre-intervention), T1-The whole semester during intervention (5 months during intervention), and T2 - The whole semester after intervention (5 months after intervention).

• Learning achievement

  Children's attainment of basic learning goals was measured through grades obtained on two subjects: Swedish and Mathematics. Children were graded as pass (Godkänd) or fail (Undergodkänd) in Swedish and Mathematics. Data were retrieved through school reports.

  T0-The whole semester before intervention (5 months pre-intervention), T1-The whole semester during intervention (5 months during intervention), and T2 - The whole semester after intervention (5 months after intervention).

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Children's health-rated quality of life (HRQOL)

  T0 - pre-intervention, T1 - immediately post intervention, T2 - 3 months post intervention, and T3 - 6 months post intervention

Study Arms (2)

Social working dogs team

EXPERIMENTAL

Children are randomized to this social working dogs team to receive dog-assisted educational tasks such as reading.

Behavioral: Dog-assisted support

Special education teachers team

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Children are randomized to this active control group to perform educational tasks with the support of special educational teachers.

Behavioral: Special education teacher support

Interventions

Dog-assisted support BEHAVIORAL

Children in the intervention group received dog-assisted support for 30 minutes per session, twice per week for 10-12 weeks. The process began with children meeting school dog with dog handlers either at their home or at school. During the intervention, children had physical contact with dogs as much as they wished and on consideration of dogs' welfare. The dog handler carried out some pedagogical tasks, such as children reading to the dog while the dog was next to the child or when its head was on the child's lap. The dog handler documented the process of each session in a protocol filled in after each session and observed the children on their educational tasks.

Social working dogs team

Special education teacher support BEHAVIORAL

Children in the control group met special education teachers and received pedagogical tasks involving Swedish, mathematics, etc. Similar to the dog team, special education teachers documented the process and observed the performance of children's educational tasks.

Special education teachers team

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 8 Years - 16 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• \- Children from grades 3-9 with at least 15% absence from school during at least one semester and receiving no additional support.

You may not qualify if:

• Children who had 50%-100% absenteeism for more than a year
• Children who were severely allergic to dogs or who had previous negative experiences with dogs
• Children from grades 1-3
• Children who had previously participated in an intervention with a social working dog.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Uppsala University: lead
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Uppsala University & Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Uppsala, Sweden

Location

Study Officials

• Lena Lidfors, Doctorate in Ethology

  Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 1, 2025
• First Posted: September 11, 2025
• Study Start: September 13, 2022
• Primary Completion: February 14, 2024
• Study Completion: February 14, 2024
• Last Updated: September 11, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-09

Locations

SE (1)