Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference 3rd Central & Eastern European LUM EN International… [623255]

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Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference
3rd Central & Eastern European LUM EN International Conference
New Approaches in Social and Humanistic Sciences |
NASHS 2017 | Chisinau, Republic of Moldova | June 8-10, 2017

Therapeutic Storytelling As A Tool For Drug
Addiction-Strengths And Constrains
Monica TURTUREAN1,
Abstract
A substance addiction is one of the most complex areas of mental
health. Substance abuse, leading often to addiction, can often be difficult to
treat. The problem is even more delicate when we are talking about children
and adolescents, in particular, because they are extremely vulnerable to
substance use. People who face an addiction to drugs or alcohol can use the
services of a mental health professional for help in overcoming addiction. One
of the most effective treatment methods is storytelling. The therapeutic story
reinforces the idea that our life is not one narrative, but a collection of
different stories, both good and bad. G.K. Chesterton said, “Stories are useful,
not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragon
can be defeated.”
Threating addicted children through therapeutically story and not
using other “drugs” is a real “challenge” for all specialists, not only from
Romania, but from entire world too.
The problem is related to the next 2 questions: 1. Is it therapeutically
story an efficient method to heal addicted children; 2. Who can do it?

1 Lecturer PhD, “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania, [anonimizat]

Through an auto-questionnaire survey, we will try to establish if the
therapeutic storytelling is an efficient intervention to prevent, to solve the
drug abuse and to highlight some ideas about this topic.
This study is a part of a bigger study (Monica Turturean, 2016) which
started in 2016 and its’ purpose is discovering the role of the therapeutically
story for different people with different needs in order to use this results in
educational activity but not only.

Keywords: storytelling, drug abuse, therapy, questionnaire, therapeutic
story
1. Introduction
Drug abuse is one of the most frightening problems of our life,
especially because too many adolescents face this. The causes of this are
associated with violence, aggressiveness, trauma, compulsive behaviour and
so on. All these consequences will lead, in time, to a low self-esteem, to
different problems in personal and professional life, but the subject is more
delicate when we are talking about the drug addicted’ teenagers (adolescents).
If we want to help them, it is very important to establish some clear
and specify objectives:
-to interrupt all the contacts with the drug’ world;
-to offer unconditionally support for these adolescents;
-to establish a good cooperation school-family;
-to help them to ask for specialty control such as psychotherapy and psychiatry;
-to motorize them for a period, after intervention in order to see their progresses.

2. Problem Statement
Because of the negative impact of drug abuse on social life, many
specialists emphasize the role of prevention, how educators and parents must
react in order to help children to be aware of the gravity and the impact of
this problem in their life. One of the most important “way” to do this is using
stories in order to make the other to realize that there are solutions for every
problem, but it is essential to seek for help because “stories set the inner life
into motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is
frightened, wedged, or cornered…” (Estes, 1992, p.15)

Why stories or fairy tales? Because “fairy tales intimate that a
rewarding, good life is within one ’s reach despite adversity – but only if one
does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never
achieve true identity (Bettelheim, 1976, p. 24).”
Unfortunately, the literature is not very generous on this topic, there
are so few writings about it, this is why we are trying, through research, to find
some solution to this real problem.

3. Research Questions/Aims of the research
The main objective of this study is to identify the perception / opinion
of parents and educators regarding the effects of therapeutically stories in
children ‘life.
The specific objectives of the study:
1. to identify the parents and educators ‘opinion regarding therapeutically
stories;
2. to find out situations in which a therapeutically story can really help;
3. to discover if the therapeutically story improves or not the adolescents
which are drug addicted;
4. to find out if a therapeutically story can be used with teenagers or not.

The hypothesis of the study:
The hypotheses of the study are:
1. The educators believe, more than the parents, in the role of therapeutically story to help
children which are drug addicted to solve their major problem.
2. Many educators and parents considers that therapeutically stories can be use in any
situations, neglecting if there are some cases in which the therapeutically story cannot be used.

4. Research Methods and the sample structure
4.1. The statistical method used in identifying parents and educators’ opinions about the
therapeutically stories

The study is based on the data yielded following a sampling survey
which investigates the opinion of educators and parents about therapeutically
stories. The sample survey was applied to a non-probabilistic sample.

This auto-questionnaire was initially pre-tested on a non-probabilistic
sample, consisting in open questions. Using frequencies analysis, we gathered
some answers for the questionnaire’ items.
The investigative technique used was the auto-questionnaire survey
which was adapted, starting from the initial questionnaire used in the previous
study, consisting in 5 questions administered in group.

4.2. The sample structure

The sampling survey was applied to a non-probability sampling
group. The educators were selected randomly from a group present to a
conference and the parents were selected randomly from a group present to
an official school’ holiday
 parents: 49
 educators: 49
The educators and the parents were informed about all aspects
regarding this study: their identity will remain anonymous, they can leave the
group if it is necessary, all information gathered from them will remain
confidential and the results of the study will be published only with their
approval.
The entire group gave their written consent in order to publish these
results of the study.

4.3. Data analysis techniques
The Statistical Package for Social Science Program (SPSS) was used to
summarize and run correlations on data obtained from the survey. Frequency
distribution was used to mention demographics of the parents and educators.
Correlation technique was utilized to discuss relationship between parents,
educators and their need of using therapeutically stories in real life.
The favoured surveying technique was the individual filling in of the
questionnaire in a group. (Rotariu T., Iluț P, 1997, p. 54). This surveying
technique was chosen because it is the easiest and the less expensive.

The parents and the educators were ensured about the confidentiality
of their answers and informed that all the results will be used for scientific
purpose only.

5. Findings

Figure 1: the structure of answers at question Q1

As we can see, 94% of educators consider that the main role of the
psychotherapeutically story is: through a story, child identify himself with the
main character and he / she can understand better his problem; instead, over
66 % of parents consider that the main role of the therapeutically story is to
help the child to solve his problem. There are significance differences between
educators and parents regarding the same subject, so, the educators and the
parents have different opinions regarding the role of therapeutically stories.
495565 6369869094
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a story allows to
acces their feelingsthrough a story, child
identify itsself with
the main character
and he / she can
understand better his
problema child can process
his feeling and
dealing with ita story can help the
child to solve his
problem1.In your opinion, what's the role of the therapeutical story on
solving the children drug' addiction?
Parents Educators

Figure 2: the structure of answers at question Q2

Looking on the numbers, we can see that 98 % from educators
considers that the main conditions necessary to create a story are: the child
must identify with the main character and to know the child’ problems. 59 %
of the parents consider that a story must have as characters animals, not
children, which means that there are big differences between parents and
educators regarding the main conditions necessaires to create a therapeutically
story.

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020406080100120
to know
exactly the
children'
problemthe story must
have as
characters
animals, not
childrenthe story must
be full with
methafors, in
order to adress
to the
subconsciousthe children
must identify
with the main
character2. Which are the main conditions necessaires to create a
therapeutical story?
Parents
Educators

Figure 3: the structure of answers at question Q3

The most important skill for an educator, according to this
questionnaire to be a good story teller (100 % choose this answer), the parents
have chosen the same skill, and this is an important observation because is the
one of the few questions where both parents and educators have the same
opinion.

Figure 4: the structure of answers at question Q4

556761809096 98 100
020406080100120
ability of
understanding
the child's
problemability to play
with himability to listen
activelyability to be a
good story
teller3. What skills need an educator or a parent in order to
tell a story?
Parents
Educators
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49 4788 86
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020406080100
aggressivity anger death separation4. Identify some real situations in which a story can
really help a parentor an educator
Parents
Educators

It is interesting to find out that 88 % of educators considers that a
story can help in aggressivity problems and 67 % of parents consider that a
story can really help in anger situation. We can conclude that a story can help
in affective disorder.

Figure 5: the structure of answers at question Q5

It is quite surprising to discover that there are 3 situations in which a
story can help an educator or a parent (according to 86 % of educators): the
parent didn’t capture exactly the problem; the story contains characters that
are not pleasing the child and the parent doesn’t know to deal with the child.
It is relieving to see that parents (over 80%) recognize their limits regarding a
therapeutically story and this is the first step in order to ask for a specialized
help.
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when the age is
too bigthe parent
didn't capture
exactly the
problemsthe story
contains
characters that
are not pleasing
the childthe parent
doesn't know
to deal with the
child5. Identify some real situations in which a story can
really help an educator
Parents
Educators

6. Validation of the hypothesis
We can notice that the first hypothesis „The educators believe, more
than the parents, in the role of therapeutically story to help children which are
drug addicted to solve their major problem” was validated by the answers
offered by educators to the item 1 (94% of them consider that the main role
of the psychotherapeutically story is: through a story, child identify himself
with the main character and he / she can understand better his problem;
instead, over 66 % of parents consider that the main role of the therapeutically
story is to help the child to solve his problem)

It is good to find out that the second hypothesis “Many educators and
parents considers that therapeutically stories can be use in any situations,
neglecting if there are some cases in which the therapeutically story cannot be
used” was invalidated by the answers offered by educator and parents, both
thinking on the real situations in which they cannot really help. These
situations are: when the age of the child is too big, when the parent didn’t
capture exactly the problem, the story contains characters that are not pleasing
the child, the parent doesn't know to deal with the child.

7. The main limits of the study

1. sample consists only of parents and educators from Bacau County , so
these results cannot be extended to the entire population of Romanian
educators or parents.
2. there will be no pre-testing the subjects, which means that we cannot
verify the accuracy of the results;
3. there is no control group.

8. Conclusions and suggestions
Taking into account the frequencies of the sample’ answers, we notice
that both parts (parents and educators) considers that the therapeutically
stories have a positive role in children’ life and it is recommended to be use in
many situations, but, taking into account the strengths and the constrains of
this topic.

So, it is very important to make some sugesstions:
 the parents must consult an educator or a specialist when they want to
create a story; otherwise, they can harm the child;

 a story must be adapted to the real problem: drug addiction, not to
„speak” generally;
 both parents and education must know and minimize, as much as they
can, the limits of a therapeutically story

References
[1] Bettelheim, B. (1976). The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy
tales. NewYork: Knoph, p. 24;
[2] Estés, C. P. (1992). Women who run with the wolves: Myths and stories
of the wild woman archetype . New York: Ballantine Books.
[3] Howitt D., Cramer D. (2010), Introduction to SPSS for Psychology,
Polirom, Publishing House, Iasi;
[4] Rotariu, T., Iluț, P., (1997). Sociological survey and opinion poll. Theory
and practice. Polirom, Publishing House, Iasi, p.54;
[5] Turturean M., Comparative Analysis towards Therapeutically Story and its
Role in Child' Life, 2016, http://apps.webofknowledge.com.am.e-
nformation.ro/full_record.do?product=WOS&search_mode=GeneralSe
arch&qid=3&SID=T2AdS2QQZUqxwBFbGD2&page=1&doc=1&cac
heurlFromRightClick=no