Bibliotherapy for Gay and Lesbian Youth Overcoming the Structure of Silence

Exploring the Role of Counselor Support: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Questioning Adolescents Struggling With Acceptance and Disclosure

“…Research has shown that many GLBT adolescences struggle with issues involved in building social competency because they are silenced, and GLBT-specific issues are absent from school presentations, curriculum, and other service activities offered (Marinoble, 1998;Munoz-Plaza et al, 2002;Riddle, 1996;Tharinger & Wells, 2000;Van Wormer & McKinney, 2003;Vare & Norton, 2004). A second theme to emerge from these participants was the need for school counselors to practice advocating for GLBQ inclusion within the school presentations and activities.…”

“…Homophobia found in schools has unfavorable effects on healthy identity development such as increased isolation and other risk factors (Van Wormer & McKinney, 2003). The result is that adolescents are often left to deal internally with feelings related to their emerging GLBQ identity (Callahan, 2001;Vare & Norton, 2004).…”

“…Cognitive isolation can also result when either GLBQ adolescents are subjected to derogatory comments about being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning from significant others or there is a lack of opportunities to explore emerging identity in a positive way. The resulting emotional isolation from the lack of cognitive and social support pushes the GLBQ adolescent into secrecy (Marinoble, 1998;Martin & Hetrick, 1988;Vare & Norton, 1998, 2004Zera, 1992).…”

Using Children's Books as Bibliotherapy for At-Risk Students: A Guide for Teachers

“…For example, researchers have not used a consistent definition of bibliotherapy and many lack research design or dependent measure rigor. Additionally, researchers often have difficulty attributing change to bibliotherapy rather than to some other cause (Vare & Norton, 2004).…”

“…For example, bibliotherapy has been advocated as a means for teaching problem solving (Forgan, 2002), helping students cope with teasing, name calling (Duimstra, 2003) or fears (Nicholson & Pearson, 2003), supporting gay and lesbian students (Vare & Norton, 2004), helping students overcome math anxiety (Hebert & Furner, 1997), and supporting students who are dealing with death (Corr, 2004).…”