Group with equine-assisted psychotherapy

Group with psychotherapy

Psychotherapy with horses

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is an instrument evaluating the current level of anxiety and personality traits. It was translated into the czech in 2019 by Figalová (2019). Scoring is done using a template, and the range of final scores is 20-80 for each subscale. The higher the score, the higher the level of anxiety or fear. The scores can be divided into three categories-no or low perceived anxiety/anxiousness, moderate anxiety/anxiousness, and high anxiety/anxiousness (Müllner et. al, 1980; Figalová, 2019).

The DASS-21 scale has 21 items. Respondents rate their experiences in the past week on a four-point Likert scale (0 = not at all; 1 = sometimes; 2 = often; 3 = almost always). The questionnaire has three subscales: depression, anxiety, and stress. The depression subscale focuses on the patient's low mood, anhedonia, hopelessness, self-deprecation, devaluation of life, and decreased motivation. The anxiety subscale focuses on physiological arousal, subjective feelings of tension, situational anxiety, and fear. The stress subscale measures the inability to relax, tension, impatience, and irritability. For all three subscales, scores are categorized as normal, mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995).

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a self-report scale to measure non-specific perceived stress (Cohen et. al, 1983). It is a short scale that is easy to administer, can be administered individually or in groups, is easy to score, and has satisfactory psychometric properties despite its small size. It is the most commonly used psychological instrument to measure perceived stress (Cohen & Janicki-Deverts, 2009). The scale consists of 10 items. Within the PSS, scores can be divided into three categories: low stress, moderate stress, and high perceived stress (Buršíková et al., 2018).