{"id":1544,"date":"2026-11-02T16:34:29","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/?p=1544"},"modified":"2026-11-02T16:34:29","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T16:34:29","slug":"to-what-extent-do-therapy-dogs-influence-childrens-social-emotional-mental-health-semh-in-schools-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/2026\/11\/02\/to-what-extent-do-therapy-dogs-influence-childrens-social-emotional-mental-health-semh-in-schools-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"To what extent do therapy dogs influence children\u2019s social emotional mental health (SEMH) in schools? (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Authors: <\/strong>Sophie Brown, Beckett Markland and Tim Cooke<br \/>\n<strong>Published:<\/strong> 2025<br \/>\n<strong>Publication:<\/strong> DECP Debate<\/p>\n<p style=\"background-color: #f2f2f2;padding: 10px\">Currently, there is an alarming increase in children experiencing social emotional mental health (SEMH) difficulties in the United Kingdom (UK) that must be addressed to enable children to thrive. One approach that is rising in popularity to address this crisis is using therapy dogs in school to improve children\u2019s SEMH. Therefore, it is essential to determine the extent to which therapy dogs influence children\u2019s SEMH before using therapy dogs is widely recommended. There appears to be emerging evidence that therapy dogs influence children\u2019s SEMH to a large extent as they impact a range of SEMH outcomes in various populations. However, the evidence base is small and caveated with several significant methodological limitations and disjointed theoretical underpinnings. Therefore, further higher quality research is needed to rigorously investigate therapy dogs\u2019 influence on children\u2019s SEMH before they are implemented in schools. Ethical considerations are raised that therapy dogs in schools may threaten the safeguarding of children and animal welfare. Subsequently, educational psychologists\u2019 (EPs) role in advising schools on therapy dogs is highlighted and the possibility for EPs to contribute to the evidence base and lobby for clear legislation and policy for therapy dogs in schools is considered.<\/p>\n<p>Brown, S., Markland, B. &amp; Cooke, T. (2025). To what extent do therapy dogs influence children\u2019s social emotional mental health (SEMH) in schools? <em>DECP Debate<\/em>, 192, 8\u201315. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.53841\/bpsdeb.2025.1.192.8\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.53841\/bpsdeb.2025.1.192.8<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/files\/2026\/11\/Therapy-dogs-in-schools-manuscript-17.02.25.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download (pre-publication copy)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authors: Sophie Brown, Beckett Markland and Tim Cooke Published: 2025 Publication: DECP Debate Currently, there is an alarming increase in children experiencing social emotional mental health (SEMH) difficulties in the United Kingdom (UK) that must be addressed to enable children &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/2026\/11\/02\/to-what-extent-do-therapy-dogs-influence-childrens-social-emotional-mental-health-semh-in-schools-2025\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58097,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1085718,1003915,925886,1085723],"tags":[1003885,1003886],"class_list":["post-1544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotional-literacy","category-emotional-regulation","category-emotional-wellbeing","category-school-dogs","tag-essay","tag-published-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/edpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}