Development and evaluation of the CARing Kids : animal assisted humane education programme for children in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: Global Urbanization is a universal challenge for humanity in the coming three decades. Urbanization creates strong momentum on human development by reducing poverty, provide better education, and better medical support. However, it also creates social and environmental issues such as pollution, social inequalities and increase risk in mental health. In the 2050s, the global population would be increased to 9.74 billion. The rapid increase of population would shape the social structure, resource demand, and natural landscape. One Health is a concept that advocated the human-animal-environment interface and is believed to be a potential solution for society's sustainable development. Early education is an essential gadget to prepare our next generation to embrace the One Health mindset to cope with the foreseeable obstacles of world urbanization. An animal-assisted humane education programme called the CARing Kids was developed to enhance primary students’ humane attitudes, social-emotional competence, and pro-animal attitudes. These skills were vital for mental well-being and essential to cope with the adverse effect of urbanization. Methods: Four essential steps were required to promote the evidence-based practice of the burgeoning animal-assisted humane education; namely, the development of the evidence-based protocol, robust research design to confirm the intervention efficacy, understand the mechanism of human and animal Interaction in the education setting, and development of animal welfare assessment tools for intervention. Two mixed-method evaluations of the controlled trial, one traced multiple case studies, and one ethogram study, were conducted to address these issues. Results: In study 1, a sequential mixed method formative evaluation indicated that the CARing Kids programme could enhance participants’ humane attitude, cognitive competence, and reduced hyperactivity. However, the school culture and learning condition could alter the impact of the CARing Kids. In study 2, a multiple case study was conducted to outline the mechanism of CARing Kids. Results indicated that the animal-assisted component with an effective curriculum design could enhance the participants’ learning outcomes. Nonetheless, the family and school environment also play a significant role in programme sustainability and the acquisition of social-emotional skills and humane attitudes. In study 3, the CARing Kids ethogram was developed to assess companion reading canines' stress response during the intervention. The results indicated that the affiliation between companion reading canines and participants increased over time; no high-stress behaviour of companion reading canines was captured during the intervention. Finally, based on the results and mechanism obtained in the previous study 1 to 3, the refined CARing Kids curriculum was implemented during the COVID-19 lockdown. A controlled trial was conducted to evaluate its impact. The result indicated that the refined online version of the CARing Kids could significantly reduce the emotional problems and hyperactivity during the school closure under the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The documented studies in this thesis indicated the positive impact of the CARing Kids. It implies that animal-assisted humane education is a feasible and promising option to develop students' social-emotional skills and humane attitudes in Hong Kong education settings. Early acquisition of these two skills is considered the foundation of “one health.” However, contextual factors such as family and school are two inevitable factors that impact students’ learning. Effective school programme should also focus on the impact of the family and school culture on the participants’ social emotional development.