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Description
This research explores the benefits of leisure and assigned reading as a coping mechanism. In this research I discovered that fiction is a powerful coping mechanism. While research has been done on Bibliotherapy, the guided use of literature for patients, clients, or students, and similar fields, no research has been done specifically on fiction or the self-guided use of fiction as a coping mechanism. I surveyed and interviewed university English students who responded that they find fiction to be soothing and that they find insight to problems they're facing when they read. I discovered that students find more insight and find reading to be more beneficial as a coping mechanism when they are reading for pleasure as opposed to assigned reading in school. The books these students choose as a coping mechanism are varied and include books and short stories from classics to general fiction. Perhaps this is because students also choose the books they read for pleasure with their emotional and psychological benefit in mind.
Publication Date
12-5-2022
City
Logan, UT
Keywords
coping mechanism, fiction, psychological benefit, self-guided use
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Judson, Miranda, "The Reality of Therapeutic Fictional Power: Students' Use of Fiction as a Coping Mechanism" (2022). Fall Student Research Symposium 2022. 25.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/fsrs2022/25