Students need school librarians and dedicated reading programs to enhance their mental health and wellbeing.
Not only does reading fiction help adolescents navigate personal and emotional development during their teens, but developing a reading habit can help to mitigate the disruptive effects of mental health throughout their entire lives.
What’s special about stories?
Stories show us that it’s okay to fail, that mistakes are opportunities for learning, that courage isn’t an absence of fear, and that not everyone is as they seem.
Stories help us identify and refine our values and ideals, show us what resilience looks like, help us to define our goals and encourage us to explore our emotions.
Stories reflect and validate our lived experiences, help us to accept our past, help us to create order from our chaotic lives, and encourage us to be optimistic about the future.
Stories comfort us, help us connect with others and make us feel less alone.
Stories reframe our problems, help us create distance and see different perspectives, and nurture optimism, hope and self-efficacy.
Stories promote empathy and compassion, remove stigmas and stereotypes, help us to embrace diversity and show us a wider view of normal.
Stories introduce us to ancient wisdom and create intergenerational connections.
Stories help us to understand our world, help us to recognize the importance of our own life story as part of a bigger picture and help us to be more accepting of ourselves.
Stories give us answers to questions we don’t know how to ask.
Stories stimulate our imagination.
Stories give us role models to inspire us to persevere and improve, to empower us to speak out, to join in celebrating the successes of others, and to help us to be grateful and accepting of ourselves.
Stories give us the insight, the language and the confidence to seek help when we need to share our concerns or can’t manage alone.
Stories are not only the easiest way but sometimes the only way to learn about ourselves, and find our place in the society and the world we inhabit, from a safe and secure place.
Who can ensure our students are learning these things if not the teacher librarian?
Why is a Teacher Librarian is the best person to implement Developmental Bibliotherapy?
Teacher Librarians love to talk about books and Teacher Librarians provide guidance, encouragement opportunities for learning without grades.
NOTE: Books do not judge and neither should librarians – remember that in developmental Bibliotherapy activities there are no wrong answers.
Developmental Bibliotherapy occurs when Young People recognize that a change has taken place in their Thoughts, Feelings, Actions or Beliefs.
Implementing
Developmental Bibliotherapy is about asking the right questions to help this
self reflection to take place. It can take as little as fa few minutes as an
informal chat, or it can be developed into a unit of work.
Whether
as an informal chat, recalling an event or quote from a novel, creating a piece
of artwork or writing a book review, Developmental Bibliotherapy is almost
certainly taking place in every library wherever a skillful teacher librarian is
talking to young people about the books they are reading.
Go to the Activities and Printables page for ideas on Implementing Developmental Bibliotherapy or ways you can ensure that your existing programs are creating the conditions for change.
If an activity results in the reader reflecting and articulating a positive change in theirThoughts, Feelings, Actions or Beliefs then Developmental Bibliotherapy has been in action.
Although reading fiction is not a panacea, by showing young people a wider view of normal, by allowing them to explore their emotions and their identity alongside fictional heroes, by removing stigmas and stereotypes and by giving them the language and the confidence to seek answers from trusted adults, Developmental Bibliotherapy programs gives students skills that can promote better mental health outcomes throughout their lives.
When children read about ordinary people achieving extraordinary successes, they come to realize that the brain is flexible and adaptable, and that intelligence, like confidence, can be also be developed – they adopt a “growth mindset”
How can we immunize young people against the disruptive force of mental illness? Joseph Gold (2001)
By ignoring the potential of books in the development of Core Confidence in young people we are depriving them of the opportunity to develop this most vital aspect of their being.
Alexander Stajkovic’s theory of Core Confidence says that Confidence resides unseen in the core of an individual’s character, and is manifested in Hope, Self-efficacy, Resilience and Optimism. These distinct but interconnected elements can predict job satisfaction, job performance and, ultimately, satisfaction with life. Furthermore, Stajkovic believed that these elements can be cultivated in all of us.
I believe they can be cultivated in young people using Developmental Bibliotherapy.
Cultivating Core Confidence with Books
Self-efficacy
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
Peter Pan in J.M. Barrie’s book of the same name.
Self-efficacy refers to the belief in one’s ability to produce a given level of attainment. It is disctinct from but related to self-esteem, motivation and resilience.
Self-efficacy influences the goals that we choose for ourselves, the confidence in our ability to learn new tasks and especially, whether we believe that abilities can be learned and developed or are fixed.
Unsurprisingly, mastery of a skill is the most powerful way to build self-efficacy. Through mastery we see that skills can be acquired and as our self-efficacy increases we are encouraged to attempt still more new skills. But influential people in our lives can also strengthen our self-efficacy – with meaningful feedback, encouragement and support we are motivated to greater efforts.
The second most powerful way to cultivate self-efficacy is through Vicarious Learning – watching or reading about people, especially role models, succeeding by their sustained effort raises our beliefs in our own abilities, much the same way that an outstanding team member can raise the achievements of less talented players in a team.
Whether we are reading horror and suspense, romance or an autobiography, mirror neurons respond to the emotions and triumphs of characters as if they were our own. And as our brains are flooded with the thoughts and experiences of characters within the pages of a book our brain is leaning vicariously – imagining conversations, testing alternatives and refining our beliefs.
Hope
“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”
Laini Taylor in Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Hope has the power to heal afflictions and helps us endure times of great suffering. Hope has a very positive impact on health, academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, emotional health, personal meaning and our ability to cope with adversity.
Hope has a positive impact on health, academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, emotional health, personal meaning and our ability to cope with adversity. Hopeful thinking is both a trait and a positive motivational state. We think of Hope as being made up of Pathways towards achieving a goal and the determination to achieve a certain goal known as Agency).
We cultivate Hope by visualising multiple pathways towards our goal, by maintaining our motivation towards achieving that goal and by believing in our power to achieve our goal.
“No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”
Dalai Lama XIV
But to cultivate Hope we must first identify our dreams; and our dreams emerge once we recognize those things we value in ourselves, our relationships and our environment.
Literature helps us to identify our values and decide what is important to us by guiding us through self-reflection. As we share the hopes and disappointments of fictional characters facing obstacles in their fictional quest, we learn to be flexible and adaptable, we visualize alternative strategies towards our own quests, we learn that setbacks and detours are obstacles to be overcome; and we begin to imagine our own paths and dreams.
“The idea of a happy ending is a very powerful thing. Living in a world without hope would be very bleak indeed”.
Josh Dallas (Once Upon a Time)
We accompany characters as they make mistakes and choices, forge relationships and face dangers and we learn to predict, to envisage alternative actions and to consider “what if” outcomes. As we follow, and sometimes identify with, the fictional character on their quest, we learn to forgive their mistakes and transgressions, and we develop empathy and compassion.
Optimism
“What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
A.A. Milnein Winnie the Pooh
Optimism is the belief that we are responsible for our own happiness and that more good things will happen to us in the future. For optimism to be a positive force this belief must be realistic – appreciating the positive aspects of a situation without ignoring the negative – and our belief must allow for the possibility that bad things do happen to good people.
Optimism can affect our personal growth, our sense of purpose in work, our relations with others, our pride in our accomplishments, and our general level of happiness and life satisfaction. Optimistic students are less susceptible to stress, loneliness and depression, and less likely to drop out. Optimists are also more likely to have healthy lifestyles.
Literature helps to cultivate our optimism by helping us escape the limitations of our environment and negativity from our influencers. Literature stimulates our imagination and enables us to organise our own experiences while in the process of deciphering someone else’s. Literature helps us to make sense of the past and become less fearful of an uncertain and sometimes terrifying future.
Resilience
“It came to me that I hadn’t known that I was less than I could have been until then, when I saw there was so much more of the world for me to be myself within.”
Griz in “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World” by C. A. Fletcher
Resilience is the ability to take responsibility for creating the future we want, to persevere through everyday adversities and tribulations, to adapt or overcome major setbacks, and to reach out to new experiences and challenges.
Resilience transforms hardship into challenge, failure into success, helplessness into power, victims into survivors and allows survivors to thrive.
Resilience comes when we believe that we have the power to control the events in our life and to change the things that need changing, and that belief is accurate. Resilience is not a trait that one either has or does not have; resilience is a state that involves behaviours, thoughts and actions, and it can be learned and developed.
Resilient individuals seek connections, they accept help and they try to help others.
Resilient individuals accept change as a path to growth.
Resilient individuals can recognise and articulate feelings, needs and viewpoints and are open to the opinions of others.
Resilient people stay curious about their world, and about the past and the future, and they are reflective and mindful of their own and others’ thoughts and emotions.
Resilient people maintain a positive self-image, a sense of perspective and derive meaning from failure.
Resilient people are see obstacles as ambitious but attainable tasks.
Resilient people enjoy learning new skills and use creative experiences to bolster their wellbeing.
Fictional characters can inspire us to develop our own resilience by watching them develop through the choices and responses they make. We learn that resilience is something that we cultivate, not something we are born with, and that sometimes resilience requires immediate action, but most often it does not. We see that resilience involves a realistic evaluation of a situation, to consider for alternative solutions, to be less reactive to our emotions, and to respond better when adversity strikes.
The Danger of Excess
It is possible to have too much of these elements of Core Confidence:
Too much Self efficacy can make us over confident and we neglect our training, we believe we have nothing left to learn, or we reject new ideas and suggestions.
Too much Hope can anesthetise us, keeping us passive when we should be motivated into action.
Too much Optimism can shroud us in illusions and irrational beliefs, or cause us to waste energy on unattainable goals.
Too much Resilience can make us overly tolerant of adversity, or make us resigned and apathetic in the face of danger.
Hope, Resilience, Self-efficacy and Optimism are states that amalgamate to form Core Confidence, so interdependent that when one is out of balance, the others will fail alongside it or fall behind and either way our Core Confidence is diminished. So it is far better to have too much Core Confidence than too little.
Developmental Bibliotherapy and Core Confidence
Joseph Gold (1998) describes the beneficial power of fiction thus: “Fiction extracts the reader from their immersion in personal confusion … using narrative to engage the reader emotionally while generating new and newly arranged information so that cognitive shift can take place. The results of this are improved problem solving skills, a greater sense of normality, a breakup of rigid and confusing cognitive frameworks, improved socialization and increased self-actualization.”
Developmental Bibliotherapy has the advantages over other all programs in that it can be infinitely tailored to meet the needs of almost any student. It can be practiced anywhere at any time, alone or in a group, at any age.
And the resources necessary to implement Developmental Bibliotherapy are already abundant in most schools.
By ignoring the potential of books in the development of Core Confidence in young people we are depriving them of the opportunity to develop this most vital aspect of their education.
“I was seeing the world through the lens of the books I had read about it”
Griz in “A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World” by C. A. Fletcher
If we could design a program for young adults with the aim of boosting good mental health, like a wellbeing vitamin, what would such a program look like?
Which personal qualities enable some young people to ride the rollercoaster that is adolescence and emerge confident that they can forge their own path within the society they are set to inhabit?
And how we can provide children and young adults with the education that enhances their own particular strengths?
Attributes and Character Strengths for the 21st Century.
Twenty first century teens face enormous educational, social and global pressures reflected by escalating numbers of young people with mental health issues.
Alexander Stajkovic proposed that Core Confidence, made up of Self efficacy, Resilience, Optimism and Hope, form an inner resource which helps us avoid being crushed by the setbacks we face during our lives.
Martin Seligman suggested that we are better placed to overcome challenging situations if we can eliminate Personalisation, Permanence and Pervasiveness from our set of personal beliefs. Seligman also revisited the term “Positive Psychology”, and identified 24 Signature Strengths, in five broad groups, that we can use or develop to achieve our potential for wellbeing, happiness and fulfilment (including seven key attributes – Self Control, Zest, Social Intelligence, Gratitude, Optimism, Curiosity and Grit, “a perseverance and passion for long-term goals” – can predict academic success).
At Camp Kulin, Western Australia, life skills such leadership, respect, trust, self confidence, self respect, self esteem, emotional regulation, anger management and perseverance are shown to improve personal, behavioural and academic outcomes for their adolescent participants.
And, John Marsden, Australian author and school principal, in saying that “by limiting children’s exposure to danger, to fear, we are limiting their ability to mature, develop resilience and independence”, reinforces recent findings that children need to experience failure and risk.
How do we kindle these qualities in young people; how do we nurture them into self sustaining personal attributes?
Research tells us that we can do this by simply encouraging children to read!
What’s Special About Books?
When a child first becomes an independent reader, they proudly, confidently and independently begin to explore new worlds. Inside the covers of books they meet new characters, confront questions and find answers, develop creativity and imagination; and they no longer rely on others for entertainment. They are separating from their parents while simultaneously taking steps towards becoming members of the grown-up world; able to communicate and share stories beyond their own limited experiences.
As children
read they learn that they can experience things as individuals, they become
confident communicators, they become creative problem solvers, and they start
to understand, recognise and relate to emotions. Their brain is learning
vicariously, and these new skills, characteristics and attributes accompany
developments in cognitive skills (thinking, problem solving, reasoning,
remembering and concentration).
As they read they begin to develop a Theory of Mind – able to consider others’ perspectives and needs – and so they start to develop empathy and start caring for others. They learn about diversity as they read stories about how other people (or animals, or imaginary creatures like fairies, or inanimate objects like pencils) go about their lives, expressingr emotions and coping with different problems and situations.
But they also learn that others experience similar feelings to themselves, such as nervousness, fearfulness or anger, and they begin to explore these feelings from a safe place within the pages of a book. They learn that sometimes bad things happen, sometimes good people fail and sometimes life isn’t fair, but that these times don’t last forever.
Characters in these first stories can help children start to think about how they want to live their lives and their own place in the world, and they help readers to explore different opportunities and possibilities. Children are developing and reflecting on their own personal values, but they are also confronting fears, taking risks, accepting failure, forming friendships, breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes and exploring alternative worlds, safely within the worlds inside a book.
Along the journey from childhood to adulthood, young adults must balance pressures from family, school, friends and often social and cultural expectations, with a personal need to explore their potential, develop and express their individual values and styles, and test their own boundaries as they reflect on what it means to live “the good life”. Many are terrified in the knowledge that their generation is facing an uncertain future with unforeseeable problems.
Young adult readers find role models among the authentic characters created by respected Young Adult authors, perhaps in addition to the adults in their lives or perhaps in the absence of trustworthy adults, to assist and guide them during their teen years.
Bibliotherapy and the Default Mode
Network.
The Default Mode Network is a group of connected regions in the brain, which is most associated with task-unrelated thinking and has been described as “The brain running in neutral” activated “precisely when we detach ourselves from what’s going on around us” (Noë, 2017).
The Default Mode Network is responsible for:
Autobiographical Memory – forming our personal memories and our understanding and reflection of ourselves, including our strengths and our emotions;
Social information – developing a Theory of Mind, empathy, moral reasoning, intuition, stereotyping, social skills;
Applying Memories – recalling the past, imagining the future, comprehending narratives;
Spontaneous Thought – contributing creativity in problem solving and AHA moments as well as enabling rapid automatic and instinctive reactions.
The Default Mode Network is most active when daydreaming, during REM sleep and while reading. Disruption in Default Mode Network connectivity has been linked to mental health issues including depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.
The Default Mode Network is responsible for continually storing and applying learned information, enabling us to make sense of the chaotic and disconnected events that we encounter daily. It is active whenever we are thinking about ourselves or others, when we are remembering the past or using our past experiences to plan for the future, when we are interacting in social contexts and finding our place in the world, and when we are exploring our creativity and testing our boundaries.
Default Mode Network is activated when we read because it supports our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states; we must access our memories in order to understand the story we’re reading.
It is the function of the Default Mode Network (DMN), and its relationship to reading and mental health, that presents the most compelling case for more Developmental Bibliotherapy in schools.
Conclusion
It is important to acknowledge that there are many categories falling under the mental illness diagnosis, and within these categories there are different underlying causes. These causes can be classified as biological, psychological and social.
Furthermore, the difficulty of separating developmental issues from abnormal problems that require medical intervention (or as Australian comedian Alice Fraser describes it “a disaster thing or a coming-of-age thing”), the difficulties in diagnosing young people in whom emotional issues present as physical problems and uncovering hidden problems in young people who may struggle with language or trust, add to the complexities in the diagnosis and treatment of childhood and adolescent mental health.
However, all
evidence indicates that early intervention is the key to minimising the impact
of mental illness. Bibliotherapy increases the likelihood of early intervention
by providing language and opening communication with trusted adults, by
addressing Seligman’s “3Ps” by portraying characters in similar situations, by
removing stigmas and shattering stereotypes, by increasing empathy and representing
diversity, by reducing fear and isolation, and by representing a wider view of
normal.
Learning
from the experiences of fictional or real characters enables all of us to stand
on their shoulders and thus experience a wider view of ourselves, the world and
our place in it, and forces us
to ask what type of life and world do we want for ourselves.
The evidence
is clear – the most cost-effective way to provide mental health benefits to
children and young adults begins with supporting school libraries, employing qualified
library staff and timetabling meaningful library programs.
“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.” G. K. Chesterton
What is Developmental Bibliotherapy?
Developmental Bibliotherapy is a branch of Bibliography which usually takes place as part of a secondary school reading program using young adult fiction and designed to help young people navigate the many issues they encounter during their adolescence.
Inside contemporary Young Adult Fiction, authors create authentic characters and anticipate their readers’ questions and concerns. Teens gain insights from characters living in similar situations, validating readers’ experiences and introducing them to language and options that may not have been previously known to them.
In this way, Young Adult Fiction becomes an effective way to break down the stigmas and stereotypes that are the major barrier preventing young people from seeking help for themselves or for others.
The objective of Developmental Bibliotherapy is to change readers’ Thoughts, Feelings, Actions and Beliefs, especially related to mental health issues, enabling conversations and addressing fears, so that issues can be identified and addressed as early as possible.
And yet, while Developmental Bibliotherapy is easily incorporated into most school reading programs, its potential for changing the lives of young people by building resilience and equipping them with skills in preparation for a crisis or a troublesome situation, has not been given sufficient attention in the fight to save school libraries and librarians.
At a time when our children and young adults need their stories told more than ever, schools are ignoring the potential within the school libraries by trimming library budgets, abandoning library programs in favour of academic programs and moving teacher librarians into classrooms.
We need stories to experience what it’s like to survive the unsurvivable; to find light in the darkest night.
Jeff Zetner
During their teens, young adults refine their personal expectations, desires and values while simultaneously facing pressures and expectations from their peers, the adults around them, and the wider community.
Adolescence may involve issues of gender and sexuality, physical or mental illness, different ability and disability, otherness, grief, guilt, family issues, mental illness, addiction, sexual assault, relationship issues, peer pressures and significant life decisions, in addition to preparing for the 21st century issues that will confront them as an adult.
Young Adult fiction is becoming more edgy, reflecting readers’ desire for stories dealing with these ‘difficult’ and sometimes controversial topics. Young adults want to see characters who are empowered, informed and able to build fulfilling lives – developing coping strategies and participating in meaningful relationships even while accepting the setbacks confronting them.
Authors of contemporary Young Adult fiction are aware of their responsibility to represent the concerns and experiences of their audience respectfully and realistically in a way that is accessible and authentic without being didactic. In turn, Young Adult readers trust authors to give them accurate and relevant information, and answers to questions they may not know how to ask, in storylines that mirror the difficult issues they see amongst their peers.
Mental Health
In 2019, 70% of US teens, identify anxiety and depression as their major concern, either for themselves or as a concern for their peers.[ii] Australian young adults are no different. On average, one in seven young Australians currently in secondary education will experience one of the common mental health illnesses in any given year.[iii] Others will experience mental health issues as a carer or see a family member experiencing mental health issues.
On average, one in seven young Australians currently in secondary education will experience one of the common mental health illnesses in any given year. Others will experience mental health issues as a carer, friend or family member of someone experiencing mental health issues.
We experience good mental health as being in control of our emotions, able to make well considered decisions and having positive interactions with people around us. We meet life’s challenges with confidence in our own abilities, or seek help when we need it. We might say that our resilience is high.
When our mental health is poor, our resilience is low, and we become confused and fearful. Setbacks often escalate into more serious issues that significantly disrupt our daily activities and relationships. And although early intervention can minimise the amount of disruption caused by a mental illness and increase the rate of recovery, we are fearful and reluctant to seek help because of the common stereotypes and stigmas that surround mental illness.
And, while most teens readily discuss most aspects of their lives on social media, few feel able to discuss mental health concerns on these platforms.
Young people need access to an adult they can trust – non-judgemental, discreet and knowledgeable and available – to discuss their concerns. It has been said that one trusted adult can make a significant difference to an adolescent’s outcomes. Amongst their most trusted adults are teachers, librarians and the authors who speak through characters with whom they can identify.
Characters in Young Adult literature, introducing language to describe their experiences, enable readers to articulate their own experiences and help them facilitate their own real life conversations. Characters’ actions and experiences answer readers’ questions, validate their experiences, identify symptoms, explore options and explain treatments in ways that reduce the fear, eliminate the stigmas and shatter the stereotypes that may be preventing young people from discussing the way they are feeling or from seeking help.
Books … explain us to ourselves and to others, and make us feel less strange, less isolated and less alone.
Alain de Botton
Furthermore, as young people read about fictional characters experiencing a mental illness, they develop empathy, becoming more supportive of others with a mental illness, and feeling more able to seek help for friends or family members who may be unable to take the effective action needed to help themselves.
Being supported and equipped with appropriate vocabulary gives young people the confidence to share troubling thoughts and feelings with others and do so sooner, which improves the chances of better outcomes.
Developmental Bibliotherapy
implemented by teachers, parents, librarians and counsellors can be a
preventative strategy for teens but should not be seen as a substitute for
long-range therapeutic intervention by a psychologist or psychiatrist where
necessary. Bibliotherapy is not a panacea but it can be an effective adjunct to
other treatments.
For Developmental Bibliotherapy to
have meaningful benefits, it requires cooperation, reading ability and desire
on the part of the reader, a positive relationship between the reader and the
therapist, and a skilful matching of reader with quality YA literature.
School based Developmental
Bibliotherapy programs need to include guided discussions and planned
activities if they are to maximize positive outcomes.
The Benefits
Humans are the story species – the only species able to communicate across time and space. Stories have helped us survive as a species; by increasing our ability to make decisions, solve problems and deal with stress and change, by allowing us to safely test out courses of action, by improving social communication, and by learning from others’ mistakes.
Bibliotherapy, the use of stories for personal growth and emotional healing, predates the written word. It is thought that storytelling emerged when primitive peoples harnessed fire and extended their wakening hours beyond sunset. Stories soothed fears, answered questions, stored knowledge, related heroic exploits and guided our physical and spiritual journeys.
Fiction validates our emotions and experiences, and fortifies our resilience. When we read fiction we learn vicariously. Fiction provides us with a safe place from which to explore our thoughts and feelings, and provides opportunities to rehearse our interactions with others.
Fiction promotes empathy by introducing us to diverse communities and showing us a wider variety of normal. Reading fiction provides us with models, helping us to define our boundaries and our values, and find answers within ourselves. And, by seeing our experiences in written form, fiction gives us the language to express ourselves.
Fiction helps us relieve stress and emotions in a controlled manner, gain insight into our own behaviour, see different perspectives and find alternative solutions. It allows us to see others experiencing similar problems so we feel less isolated and alone, and prepares us for some of the issues we may be anticipating with dread, encouraging us to face problems before they escalate.
Developmental Bibliotherapy must be implemented more widely in schools. It is an effective technique for helping children with a variety of topics – the advantages are many and the disadvantages are few.
If literature is a really important human resource, how can we accept a situation that tolerates the loss of this resource to millions of people?
Read For Life 