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Abstract
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.
Keywords quasi-experimental, protective resources, resilience, stories, vulnerable
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Author biographies
Linda Theron (DEd) a Full Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, and an Extraordinary Professor in Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, South Africa. Her research explores how sociocultural contexts shape resilience in South African young people, specifically resilience processes of those challenged by chronic adversity (see www.Lindatheron.org).
Kate Cockcroft (PhD) a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, conducts research that focuses on cognitive development and assessment, particularly with regard to language and memory.
Lesley Wood (DEd) a Research Professor in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University, South Africa, focuses on improving the psycho-social well-being of community stakeholders in education through action research, with a special focus on HIV and AIDS in education.
