{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T13:33:42Z","timestamp":1791812022853,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,24]],"date-time":"2022-08-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1661299200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001711","name":"Swiss National Science Foundation through an Ambizione grant","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PZ00P1_174082\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PZ00P1_174082\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001711","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Human\u2013Animal Relationship (IEMT) in Switzerland","award":["PZ00P1_174082\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PZ00P1_174082\/1"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Previous research has called for improving psychological interventions and developing new treatments for prisoners. Animal-assisted prison-based programmes have increasingly been used as an approach, but there is a lack of studies investigating the effectiveness of such programmes. Objective: To investigate the effects of a dog-assisted social- and emotional-competence training on the socioemotional competences of prisoners compared to treatment as usual. Methods: In a controlled trial, we investigated 62 prisoners that participated in either a 6-month dog-assisted psychotherapeutic programme or the standard treatment. We assessed social and emotional competences before and after the training and at a 4-month follow-up. Data were analysed with linear models. Results: The prisoners\u2019 self-assessed social and emotional competences did not differ. The psychotherapists rated the prisoners\u2019 emotional competences in the intervention group higher at the follow-up but not after the training. The psychotherapists did not rate the prisoners\u2019 social competences in the intervention group differently but did find them to have higher self-regulation at follow-up and lower aggressiveness after the training than the control group. Conclusions: This study indicates that dog-assisted programmes with a therapeutic aim might be beneficial for prisoners. However, the inconsistent results indicate that more research is needed to determine the potential and limits of animal-assisted programmes in forensic settings.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph191710553","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,24]],"date-time":"2022-08-24T21:03:51Z","timestamp":1661375031000},"page":"10553","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Effects of a Dog-Assisted Social- and Emotional-Competence Training for Prisoners: A Controlled Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7202-4816","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karin","family":"Hediger","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Clinical Psychology and Animal-Assisted Interventions, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62, 4056 Basel, Switzerland"},{"name":"Human and Animal Health Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute Basel, Kreuzstrasse 2, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland"},{"name":"Faculty of Psychology, Open University, Postbus 2960, 6401 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Human\u2013Animal Interaction (IEMT), Kreuzstrasse 2, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9072-8905","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rahel","family":"Marti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Clinical Psychology and Animal-Assisted Interventions, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62, 4056 Basel, Switzerland"},{"name":"Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Human\u2013Animal Interaction (IEMT), Kreuzstrasse 2, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vivien","family":"Urfer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Clinical Psychology and Animal-Assisted Interventions, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62, 4056 Basel, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Armin","family":"Schenk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Clinical Psychology and Animal-Assisted Interventions, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 62, 4056 Basel, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9019-0319","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Verena","family":"Gutwein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pet-Agogik, L\u00e4rchenweg 12, 68804 Altlussheim, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christine","family":"D\u00f6rr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Corrections Bruchsal, Sch\u00f6nbornstrasse 32, 76646 Bruchsal, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Fair, H., and Walmsley, R. 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