Further research is still needed to demonstrate the benefits of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for specific participant profiles, such as children with behavioural disorders.

We wanted to find out if AAT could be considered an efficient therapeutic strategy for the treatment of children with behavioural disorders.

We wanted to study the effects of a preestablished AAT program on the behaviour of children with emotional and behavioural issues in 6 different reception centres for children under government guardianship.

Forty-five children (12 to 17 years old) with emotional and behavioural issues participated in a 14-session AAT program. Behavioural measures were those routinely scored as part of therapy; an observational report of 3 different problematic behaviours (such as impulsivity, lack of social skills or lack of personal recognition) was made twice a week for each child (with a score of frequency and intensity). A pre- and post-treatment “global behaviour score” was calculated for each child, as an average value of the 3 problematic behaviours measured during the month pre-treatment and the month post-treatment.

The 45 participants attended, on average, 72.8% of AAT sessions. Independent behaviour scores differed between the pre- and post-intervention evaluations (n = 135 behaviours) (Wilcoxon test; P < 0.0001). Based on the global behaviour score for each child (n = 45), significant change was found between pre- and post-intervention evaluations (Wilcoxon test; P = 0.0011).

Our results suggest AAT could be a beneficial intervention for children with behavioural issues in terms of program adherence and behaviour improvement.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.