We Are Still Here: Omission and Perceived Discrimination Galvanized Civic Engagement Among Native Americans.

Leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Native American organizations and tribes launched get-out-the-vote campaigns that motivated Native peoples to vote in record numbers and helped flip battleground states. We conducted four studies (total N = 11,661 Native American adults) to examine the social and cultural factors explaining this historic Native civic engagement (e.g., campaigning). Results revealed that the more participants identified as being Native, the more they reported (a) engaging in civic activities, including get-out-the-vote behaviors during the 2020 election (Study 1); (b) civic engagement more broadly across a 5-year period (pilot study, Study 2); and (c) intentions to engage in civic activities in the future (Study 3). Moreover, participants who more strongly identified as Native were more likely to recognize the omission of their group from society and perceive greater group discrimination, which both independently and serially predicted greater civic engagement. These results suggest that leveraging the link between Native identification and group injustices can motivate action.

Petting away pre-exam stress: The effect of therapy dog sessions on student well-being.

Recently, many universities have implemented programmes in which therapy dogs and their handlers visit college campuses. Despite the immense popularity of therapy dog sessions, few randomized studies have empirically tested the efficacy of such programmes. The present study evaluates the efficacy of such a therapy dog programme in improving the well-being of university students. This research incorporates two components: (a) a pre/post within-subjects design, in which 246 participants completed a brief questionnaire immediately before and after a therapy dog session and (b) an experimental design with a delayed-treatment control group, in which all participants completed baseline measures and follow-up measures approximately 10 hr later. Only participants in the experimental condition experienced the therapy dog session in between the baseline and follow-up measures. Analyses of pre/post data revealed that the therapy dog sessions had strong immediate benefits, significantly reducing stress and increasing happiness and energy levels. In addition, participants in the experimental group reported a greater improvement in negative affect, perceived social support, and perceived stress compared with those in the delayed-treatment control group. Our results suggest that single, drop-in, therapy dog sessions have large and immediate effects on students' well-being, but also that the effects after several hours are small.