Table 1.

Participants’ characteristics.

Variable	All participants	NF group	DF group
Number of individuals	N = 30	nNF = 15	nDF = 15
Number of femalea	24	10	14
Age (M ± SD)a	25.60 ± 7.73	26.93 ± 9.15	24.27 ± 6.03
95% Confidence interval	(22.71; 28.49)	(21.87; 32.00)	(20.93; 27.61)
Trait anxiety score (M ± SD)b	40.53 ± 9.79	35.53 ± 9.13	45.53 ± 7.84
95% confidence interval	(36.88; 44.19)	(30.48; 40.59)	(41.19; 49.87)
Dog fear score (M ± SD)c	15.33 ± 13.66	2.40 ± 1.64	28.27 ± 5.02
95% Confidence interval	(10.23; 20.43)	(1.49; 3.31)	(25.49; 31.05)
Range	(0.00; 36.00)	(0.00; 5.00)	(21.00; 36.00)

^aBoth groups were similar in terms of ratio of female [χ² test with Yates correction: ${\mathrm{\chi }}_{\left(1\right)}^2=1.88$, p = 0.171] and age [T-test: t₍₂₈₎ = −0.94, p = 0.354].

^bThe trait anxiety score was significantly different between groups [T-test: t₍₂₈₎ = 3.22, p = 0.003, d = 1.18].

^cThe variance of dog fear scores was different between groups [F_(15,15) = 9.39, p = 0.0002], hence a non-parametric test was conducted. The dog fear score was significantly different between groups (Mann–Whitney U-test: U = 0.00, p < 0.001).