The Effect of Group Bibliotherapy on the Resilience and Life Expectancy in Improving the Health Status of Children Afflicted with Cancer

Bibliotherapy was originally used to treat emotional problems in adults, but during the second half of the 19th century, the theoretical and practical foundations and instructions for its use grew widely. Now, bibliotherapy is a prominent strategy that is not only used to treat clinical problems, but also is cosidered a method that can be effective in guiding clients by using the book to meet their needs. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of experimental intervention of group bibliotherapy on the Resilience and life expectancy of children with cancer in Besat Hospital in Hamadan in the process of improving their health status.

This research is a quasi-experimental study using a pretest-posttest on two groups, i.e. an experimental group and a control group. For the experimental group, several bivliotherapic sessions were held while no intervention more than the usual practices in the research environment were made. The research sample included 30 children afflicted with cancer, aged 10 to 14 who were in an initial stage of the disease and had completed at least one course of chemotherapy. The research instrument consists of two questionnaires: Connerchr('39')s perseverance and Schneiderchr('39')s life expectancy. The experimental group underwent a group bibliotherapic intervention in eight sessions. Two books, namely Living with Chronic Pain: An Approach Based on Accepting the herapistchr('39')s Guide and Patient Workbook by Kevin Wells and John Sorrell (2011) and Practical Pain Management Handbook: A Positive Attitude Toward Adapting to Chronic Pain by Michael Nicholas (2008), were the researcherschr('39') guide in this bibliotherapy. Data analysis was done using an independent t-test and a covariance analysis in the SPSS software.

Results of the independent t-test showed that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of the two variables of resilience and life expectancy in the control and experimental groups. Furthermore, the effect of this kind of bibliotherapy on the life expectancy in the children afflicted with cancer was 43.6% and its effect on resilience was 64.1%. Moreover, all the assumptions related to the analysis of covariance have been fulfilled

Originality/value:

 The current research is the first research carried out on the effect of group bibliotherapy on the level of resilience and life expectancy of children afflicted with cancer, while considering the positive effects of bibliotherapy, it can be one of the services of public libraries for patients.