"You Think You're Helping Them, But They're Helping You Too": Experiences of Scottish Male Young Offenders Participating in a Dog Training Program.

ABSTRACT: Interaction with animals can be beneficial to humans and animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) are increasingly popular in a range of contexts. Dog training programs (DTPs) are the most popular form of AAI in custodial contexts; prisoners often have multiple needs and DTPs seem to facilitate a diverse range of positive outcomes, including improvements in well-being, behavior, and offending behavior. However, evidence on the efficacy of prison-based DTPs is still limited and these evaluations often lack detail or methodological rigor. We examined the experiences of male young offenders (N = 70) using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted following completion of a DTP. The themes that emerged indicated a broad range of inter-related experiences and positive outcomes. The m

SUBMITTER: Leonardi RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5580647 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature