Comics reading for the welfare of adolescents in residential care

Aug 23, 2026

Comic book reading, as an informal vernacular practice, supports adolescents in narrating and working through complex and painful experiences. Young people in Residential Foster Care have faced repeated rights violations, including abuse, with affective-destructive models marked by violence, low empathy, limited social support, guilt and stigmatization, and difficulties across behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and school adaptation domains. Residential care need not be traumatic, but can become a life opportunity. Reading comics is presented as an effective socio-educational intervention, selecting and analyzing 16 works to inform programs based on well-being factors such as family-history understanding, empowerment, family-social recognition, self-concept acceptance, affectivity-emotions-love, autonomy, social support networks, and world interpretation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Reading as educational obligation vs voluntary practice

Comics history and educational potential

Research background on comics with adolescents

Ocnos, 21(1), 2022. ISSN: 2254-9099 [https://doi.org/10.18239/ocnos_2022.21.1.2741](https://doi.org/10.18239/ocnos_2022.21.1.2741) Artículos Comics reading for the welfare of adolescents in residential care Lectura de cómics para el bienestar de los adolescentes en acogimiento residencial Manuel-Jesús Maldonado-Lozano* 1 Myriam Gutiérrez-Zornoza2 1 Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain 2 Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain * Corresponding author: [ManuelJ.Maldonado@uclm.es](ManuelJ.Maldonado@uclm.es) Received: 10/05/2021 ; Accepted: 20/07/2021 Abstract Comic book reading, as a vernacular and informal practice, has been shown to be a useful tool for narrating and working on complex and painful events with adolescents. Young people in Residential Foster Care (AR) have suffered multiple violations of their rights, experiencing situations of abuse, with affective-destructive models based on violence and lack of empathy, with little social support network, feelings of guilt and stigmatisation together with behavioral, cognitive, emotional and school adaptation difficulties. RA does not have to be a traumatic experience per se, but a life opportunity. Reading comics is a novel socio-educational intervention strategy that can be very effective for your well-being. For this reason, 16 works have been selected and analysed that will serve as support for socio-educational interventions, according to the topic criteria: maturation stories starring adolescents who face problematic situations where they deploy coping strategies. Synthesising its content, starting from the development factors of the well-being of adolescents in RA, which have to do with understanding family history, empowerment, family-social recognition, self-concept-acceptance, affectivity-emotions-love, autonomy, social support networks and interpretation of the world. Keywords: Adolescents; residential care; reading motivation ; comics ; content analysis ; bibliotherapy Resumen Se ha demostrado que la lectura de cómics, como práctica vernácula e informal, es una herramienta útil para narrar y trabajar sucesos complejos y dolorosos con adolescentes. Los jóvenes en Acogimiento Residencial (AR) han sufrido múltiples vulneraciones de sus derechos, experimentando situaciones de maltrato, con modelos afectivos-destructivos basados en la violencia y falta de empatía, conescasa red de apoyo social, sentimiento de culpabilización y estigmatización, dificultades conductuales, cognitivas, emocionales y de adaptación escolar. El AR no tiene que ser una experiencia traumáticaper se y sí una oportunidad de vida. La lectura de cómics supone una novedosa estrategia de intervención socioeducativa que puede ser muy eficaz para su bienestar. Por ello, se han seleccionado Ocnos: Revista de estudios sobre lectura. Editada por CEPLI; Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha se distribuye bajo unalicencia Creative Commons Atribucción-NoComercial-SinDerivar 4.0 Internacional Maldonado-Lozano, M. , Gutiérrez-Zornoza, M. y analizado 16 obras que servirán de apoyo a intervenciones socioeducativas, atendido al criterio de temática: historias de maduración protagonizadas por adolescentes que se enfrentan a situaciones problemáticas ante las cuales despliegan estrategias de afrontamiento. Sintetizando su contenido, partiendo de los factores de desarrollo del bienestar de los adolescentes en AR, que tienen que ver con comprender la historia familiar, empoderamiento, reconocimiento familiar-social, autoconceptoaceptación, afectividad-emociones-amor, autonomía, redes de apoyo social e interpretación del mundo. Palabras clave: Adolescentes; acogimiento residencial ; motivación lectora ; cómics ; análisis decontenido ; biblioterapia Introduction Reading is an educational obligation or an amusement rather than code-breaking. It brings meaning to being, thinking, feeling, doing and being in the world, recognising the other and allowing the collective fabrication

FAQs

Why is comics reading considered useful for adolescents in residential care?

It helps adolescents narrate and work through complex and painful events, supporting socio-emotional healing and meaning-making.

What challenges do adolescents in residential foster care commonly experience?

They often face rights violations and abuse, with low-empathy violence-based models, limited social support, guilt and stigmatization, and difficulties in behavior, cognition, emotions, and school adaptation.

How does the document propose using comics in socio-educational interventions?

It analyzes 16 maturation-themed works and organizes their content to support intervention factors linked to adolescent well-being, including family-history understanding, empowerment, recognition, self-acceptance, affectivity, autonomy, social networks, and interpreting the world.

Aug 23, 2026

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