Bibliotherapy: a strategy to help students with bullying

Abstract

Use of bibliotherapy to address childhood teasing and bullying is an innovative approach school nurses should consider as they work to promote a healthy school environment. Children's books serve as a unique conduit of exchange between parents, teachers, and children. Bibliotherapy, using books to help people solve problems, involves three stages: identification, catharsis, and insight. These stages lend themselves well to coping with the sensitivities related to teasing and bullying. Salient research findings pertinent to teasing and bullying have made their way into the children's literature and have been well received by children and their families over the course of the Child Adolescent Teasing in Schools (CATS) book review project and web site development. After exposure to a fictional story about teasing and bullying, children have shared their own nonfictional account of this often devastating experience and have come to develop successful coping strategies for dealing with the teasing and bullying that takes place in schools nationwide.