In conversation with… Dr Megan Mueller, Associate Professor of Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.

The global PAWS program aims to bring deeper insights and scientific data into the mutual impacts of human-animal relationships, exploring how pets may enrich lives across all ages and walks of life.

Can you tell us why you specifically chose to focus on adolescents with social anxiety?

Social anxiety is more pervasive than ever in teens. Today’s teenagers have all lived through a global lockdown, which has exacerbated mental health challenges.[1] Without proper coping mechanisms, social anxiety can persist through adulthood and lead to other anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse.[2]^,[3],[4]

Recent research has demonstrated that relationships with companion animals, dogs in particular, can relieve anxiety for young people.[5]^,[6] However, we need more research – and specifically longitudinal data – to assess the true potential of the teenager-dog relationship.

Can you tell us about the design of your study and what makes it unique?

The Teen and Dog Study follows 514 adolescents with high social anxiety and their pet dogs across five years. The teens range in age from 13 to 17 years old and come from a mix of urban, rural, and suburban areas across 44 American states. The Teen and Dog Study uses a mixed methods approach, collecting three integrated streams of data. The arm of the study supported by the PAWS program includes a subsample of youth who are participating in several periods of more in-depth psychophysiological data collection.

Within our group of participants, we have some that have a really strong bond with their dogs. Some have less strong relationships. That was important to us to capture a range of experiences and family dynamics.

Our data – and the way we are collecting it – is quite unique. Although there have been several other studies looking at the relationship between teens and their pets, we don’t yet have any longitudinal data.  We need this type of data to understand how dog relationships may be contributing to youth development over time. When we follow families for a multi-year period, we can see the transitions that we don't get to see in other types of study designs.

Another factor that makes this study different from previous research is our dedication to understanding the mechanisms driving relationships between teens and their dogs. We’re analysing the social and physiological processes in youth-dog relationships. Before now, these have not been explored extensively, particularly during the adolescent period.

How are you collecting data?

We are using several different methods to collect data during the study. As part of the larger Teen and Dog Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, we are collecting survey data from parents and youth over four years. We are also conducting – and analysing – interviews with the teens and their parents on how they perceive the youth-dog relationship.

With support from the PAWS Program, we are also running ecological momentary assessments over weeklong periods throughout the study. During these, the teens respond to phone prompts asking if they are with their dog and about their feelings of anxiety in the moment. These responses are paired with psychophysiological data gathered from a wristband.

This physiological data will help us to determine if interactions with dogs decrease physiological arousal, anxiety, and loneliness in our teens.

What observations have you made so far? Have there been any surprises or unexpected results?

Our initial results show that youth relationships with their dogs are individual and diverse. For many youth, a positive relationship with their dog is linked to adaptive coping with anxiety. However, teens differ in how and when they turn to their dogs for comfort, and in how their feelings, stress responses, and sense of loneliness are connected. These findings underscore the importance of using data collection and analysis methods that reflect the nuances of human-animal relationships and allow us to understand from a scientific perspective what we can do to facilitate positive youth-dog relationships.

What are some of the biggest challenges in conducting this study?

There are challenges with any longitudinal research. Attrition, for instance, should any of our teens drop out of the study. Our sample size is, however, large enough that this should have minimal impact on our findings if this does happen.

How do you hope your findings will influence future research or mental health interventions?

It is our hope that the study could inform interventions that harness the benefits of youth-dog relationships to improve mental health outcomes.

We also hope that our data will, eventually, become a resource for other researchers who are interested in exploring the benefits of the teen-pet dog relationship from new angles.

Finally, what’s the one message you’d like people to take from your research?

By discovering more about the impact of the teenager-dog relationship on social anxiety, including the mechanisms at play, we could help our young people learn how to thrive in the face of challenges. This could set them up with healthy coping strategies that they carry with them into adulthood. This is just one reason that HAI research is so important.

CTA: The study protocol, Longitudinal idiographic assessment of adolescent-dog relationships and adaptive coping for youth with social anxiety: The Teen & Dog Study protocol, was published in the October 2025 edition of the journal PLOS One. Read the paper here: [Link]

You can also find out more about PAWS here: Mars Pets and Wellbeing Study

[1] Office of the Surgeon General. Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. Washington (DC): US Department of Health and Human Services; 2021.

[2] Bögels SM, Alden L, Beidel DC, Clark LA, Pine DS, Stein MB, et al. Social anxiety disorder: questions and answers for the DSM-V. Depress Anxi­ety. 2010;27(2):168–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20670 PMID: 20143427

[3] Sartor CE, Jackson KM, McCutcheon VV, Duncan AE, Grant JD, Werner KB, et al. Progression from first drink, first intoxication, and regular drink­ing to alcohol use disorder: a comparison of African American and European American youth. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2016;40(7):1515–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.13113 PMID: 27256613

[4] Spence SH, Rapee RM. The etiology of social anxiety disorder: an evidence-based model. Behav Res Ther. 2016;86:50–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2016.06.007 PMID: 27406470

[5] Kerns KA, Stuart-Parrigon KL, Coifman KG, van Dulmen MHM, Koehn A. Pet dogs: does their presence influence preadolescents’ emotional responses to a social stressor?. Soc Dev. 2018;27(1):34–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12246 PMID: 29379226

[6] Kertes DA, Liu J, Hall NJ, Hadad NA, Wynne CDL, Bhatt SS. Effect of pet dogs on children’s perceived stress and cortisol stress response. Soc Dev. 2017;26(2):382–401. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12203 PMID: 28439150