Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Dissertation

Department

Education and Human Services

First Advisor

Stahlman, Judy

Subject Headings

Bibliotherapy for children, Bibliotherapy for teenagers, Emotional problems of children, Behavior disorders in children, Special education, Bibliotherapy, Emotional awareness, Students with emotional or behavioral disorders, Special education, Intervention programs, Level of emotional awareness scale for children (LEAS-C), Integrated academic and mental health programming, Re-ED

Abstract

Educators and mental health professionals search for interventions to help students with emotional and behavioral problems. Bibliotherapy, the therapeutic use of literature, has been a widely used yet sparsely researched intervention. Research regarding bibliotherapy and students' emotional awareness is absent. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among bibliotherapy intervention exposure, level of emotional awareness, and characteristics of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Archival data sets from 182 students ages 6 - 13 in day treatment were analyzed in this study. One archival data set was scores from the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children (LEAS-C Bajgar, 2004). The LEAS-C is a self-report instrument, designed to assess emotional awareness in children. Another archival data set detailed the amount of bibliotherapy intervention exposure that each student received. The final archival data set came from existing student demographic information such as gender, age, race, DSM-IV-TR diagnosis and length of stay in day treatment. Quantitative and qualitative methods specific to each question were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and regression modeling examined relationships among bibliotherapy intervention exposure, level of emotional awareness and student characteristics. Qualitative methods were used to analyze archived interviews of students' experience with bibliotherapy. Results established a range of the levels of emotional awareness for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The level of emotional awareness for Self and Other was found to be correlated. Differences in emotional awareness were found among students with differing DSM-IV-TR diagnoses. Bibliotherapy intervention exposure did not predict student level of emotional awareness. However, student exposure to bibliotherapy intervention combined with PATHS was correlated to students' level of emotional awareness. Select student interviews revealed that s

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