ERIC Number: EJ1155781
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Oct
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0143-0343
EISSN: N/A
The Resilience-Enabling Value of African Folktales: The Read-Me-To-Resilience Intervention
Theron, Linda; Cockcroft, Kate; Wood, Lesley
School Psychology International, v38 n5 p491-506 Oct 2017
Resilience, or the process of adjusting well to adversity, draws on personal and social ecological resources (i.e., caregiving and community supports). Previous research--conducted mostly in the Global North--has shown that bibliotherapy offers a way to support children in identifying and utilizing resilience-enabling resources. In so doing, bibliotherapy has the potential to facilitate resilience. In this article, we confirm the resilience-supporting value of bibliotherapy for African orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). To do so, we report the quantitative and qualitative pre- and post-test results of the Read-me-to-Resilience Study (N = 345). This quasi-experimental study showed that African children who listened to indigenous resilience-themed stories had a significantly increased awareness of personal and community-based protective resources post-intervention, than those who did not. Interestingly, there was no significant increase in their perceptions of caregiving resources. The findings suggest that school psychologists and teachers should include resilience-enabling stories in their support of children who are orphaned. However, further research is needed on how best to use stories in ways that will enable children to identify caregiving resources.
Descriptors: African Culture, Folk Culture, Intervention, Resilience (Psychology), Bibliotherapy, Parents, Death, Quasiexperimental Design, Pretests Posttests, Community Resources, Knowledge Level, Comparative Analysis, School Psychologists, Measures (Individuals), Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Graduate Students, Children, Foreign Countries, Caregiver Child Relationship, Social Support Groups, Multivariate Analysis, Outcomes of Treatment, Mixed Methods Research
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A