The resilience-enabling value of African folktales: The read-me-to-resilience intervention
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Creative bibliotherapy has been used in mental health and social care to improve outcomes.
“Creative bibliotherapy has been used in mental health and social care to improve outcomes”
From Recent developments in bibliotherapy for adolescent depression (2025) · cites this paper as [50]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that creative bibliotherapeutic interventions have shown efficacy and that this study found a modest positive effect on resilience among South African orphans and vulnerable children. The paper also describes bibliotherapy as a form of basic mental health provision, but it does not establish its use in social care settings to improve outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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5. Sınıf Türkçe Ders Kitabındaki Metinlerin Bibliyoterapik Unsurlar Açısından İncelenmesi
KOÇ, G. Ç., & Koç, İ. (2026) · Eğitim ve Yeni Yaklaşımlar Dergisi · doi:10.52974/jena.1916177
- Authors
- Theron, L., Cockcroft, K., & Wood, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Pretoria (ZA)
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- North-West University (ZA)
- Corresponding author
- Theron, Linda
- Venue
- School Psychology International
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-09-25
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 491-506
- ISSN
- 0143-0343 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7374
- OpenAlex
- W2758095164
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 3.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- School Psychology International (publishedVersion)
- UpSpace Institutional Repository (University of Pretoria) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- South Africa Netherlands research Programme on Alternatives in Development
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Themes in Literature Analysis
- Keywords
- resilience, African folktales, bibliotherapy, orphans and vulnerable children, Indigenous stories, protective factors, community support
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