Table 1.
Activities reported to improve emotions/moods of autistic adults.
| Most frequent subthemes (≥ 5% mentions) | Sample extract from interviews | |
|---|---|---|
| Increase in | ||
| Positive valence-high arousal, e.g., happy, excited, joyful, fun 167 mentions |
The presence of the dog (18; 10.8%) Training the dog, doing agility, scent work (17; 10.2%) Close dog-owner interactions (17; 10.2%) Tactile interactions initiated by the dog (17; 10.2%) Dog playing (15; 9.0%) Watching dog's behaviour (14; 8.4%) Exercise with the dog (13; 7.8%) Dog shows good behaviour, training skills (13; 7.8%) |
"She likes playing with balls and that kind of thing, that's quite a fun activity to deal with it, gets me out of the house, which I wouldn't normally do that much. It's quite happy, that kind of thing." P3 |
| Positive valence-low arousal, e.g., calm, relaxed, peaceful 182 mentions |
Tactile interactions initiated by the dog (45; 24.7%) Tactile interactions initiated by the owner or unclear (26; 14.3%) The presence of the dog (20; 11.0%) Exercise with the dog (18; 9.9%) Close dog-owner interactions (18; 9.9%) |
"She comes over like that, and then lies on me. I find that the combination of stroking her and her lying on me it's almost like having your personal kind of heated weighted blanket. It's just really calming. I feel so relaxed and just content when she's like lying on me and I'm stroking that soft bit of fur on her chest." P1 |
| Decrease in | ||
| Negative valence-high arousal, e.g., stressed, angry, frustrated, worried, annoyed 70 mentions |
Tactile interactions initiated by the dog (19; 27.1%) The presence of the dog (18; 25.7%) Close dog-owner interactions (8; 11.4%) Tactile interactions initiated by the owner or unclear (8; 11.4%) Specific assistance functions (5; 7.1%) Exercise with the dog (4; 5.7%) |
"If I have a meltdown, or if I'm really stressed, she sometimes senses it. And if I'm gonna hurt myself or anything, she will just sort of like jump on my lap or jump on the bed and give me that look—come on, have a cuddle. And sort of just lay there for a second, you know, to call me and stuff. And it can help because she's not talking to me. She's just there" P25 |
| Negative valence-low arousal, e.g., sad, tired, low, depressed 34 mentions |
The presence of the dog (9; 26.5%) Tactile interactions initiated by the dog (9; 26.5%) Having/raising the dog (4; 11.8%) Close dog-owner interactions (4; 11.8%) Tactile interactions initiated by the owner or unclear (3; 8.8%) Exercise with the dog (2; 5.9%) |
"Whenever I'm feeling sad or depressed or panicking myself, just having one of the dogs nearby is almost a calming presence. It's a feeling of—it's going to be okay. It's a really weird thing to say, but it's a bond, I suppose you could say that, that's a very positive thing, I think." P26 |
The numbers next to the subthemes indicate the number of times (and percentage) a subtheme was reported to generate the respective well-being outcome.