The Effects of Thematic Reading on Mental Resilience Development in Rural Left-Behind Children: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Mental resilience is the ability to cope with difficult situations that happens in the individual’s life, conducive to their adaptation to change and uncertainty in addressing setbacks. It is of vital importance for mental health. Mental resilience development is an essential component of mental health education for basic education children. Rural primary schools in China have a high proportion of left-behind children of migrant workers, whose mental health, including mental resilience issue, is a major concern of the public. Based on the reading therapy theory, this empirical study aims to examine the effects of thematic reading on mental resilience development in rural left-behind children with a sample of 83 third and fourth graders from a primary school in northern Hebei province. The subjects were divided into the experimental group (consisting of students scoring lower on the mental resilience questionnaire) and the control group (consisting of students scoring higher on the questionnaire). A two-month thematic reading course was administered to the experimental group.