Amira Karray

Art workshop with Haitian street children in a post-earthquake context: Resilience, relationship and socialisation International Journal of Art Therapy

ABSTRACT This article forms part of a research project on the subject of resilience and the creative process in Haitian street children and adolescents who have been victims of natural disasters. A creative art group initiative was set up with street children in order to assess their ability to engage in creative activity and the extent to which such an activity could facilitate their reintegration into society, as well as offering an outlet for expressing their reactions to the various traumatic experiences they had undergone. Our working hypothesis was that the development of a relationship between the children, the artists, the workshop facilitators, and also with the context and creative process, could help to initiate a process of personal and cultural expression. It was also thought that the artists and workshop facilitators would provide substitute parental figures, who might act as catalysts in the children’s symbolisation process.

Resilience in Haiti: is it culturally pathological?

Not for the first time in recent history, the people of Haiti have been obliged to fall back on their resilience strategies in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Following the powerful earthquake that struck the country on 12 January 2010, the entire population had to find the resources to survive in the face of extensive material damage and loss of life: over 222 000 dead, more than 300 000 injured and between 4000 and 7000 amputees (UNDP, 2010).

Le Roman scolaire d’une adolescente « de migrants » : récit clinique d’une subjectivité en souffrance

Chez les enfants et adolescents de migrants en France, les difficultes a l’ecole s’attribuent souvent a la non-rencontre des cultures familiales avec les cultures institutionnelles du pays d’accueil. L’ecart, parfois vecu comme rupture, impacte le rapport au savoir des jeunes et leur rapport au monde. Un entre-deux social, culturel et symbolique se situe entre la famille migrante et l’institution scolaire. C’est ce chemin entre-deux que nous etudions a travers la presentation du cas d’une adolescente, en difficulte et en souffrance scolaire et identitaire. A travers un dispositif clinique de recherche, nous presentons dans l’apres-coup des rencontres les aspects conflictuels reels et fantasmes de la trajectoire scolaire, mais aussi les processus de construction identitaire passant par cette trajectoire racontee sous la forme d’un Roman scolaire. Celui-ci est un moyen de se raconter dans un espace intermediaire creant des liens de sens entre parcours scolaire et social, et histoire familiale migratoire.

Evaluating the risks of school dropout amongst children in the care of the French child protection system: An exploratory study

The aim of this pilot study is to identify the best way of preventing and assessing the livelihood and risk of school dropout amongst children entrusted to the care of the French child protection system in the Département of Rhone. The sample comprised 91 children and adolescents aged 4- to 17-years-old, of whom 45 were girls. The data were gathered using a unique report including the items evaluating sociodemographic data and the School Dropout Risk Evaluation Questionnaire. The results show that the older these children get, the more they see their academic problems as revolving around themselves. The youngest amongst them attribute their problems to the quality of approach adopted in the environment while the older children tend to view themselves as the reason for their failure. Collaborative efforts are therefore necessary between all actors in order to prevent school dropout and to provide intervention as early as possible.

Addiction et agressivité chez les adolescents en échec scolaire : approches cognitive, psychodynamique et interculturelle

Ce travail tente d’apporter un eclairage cognitif et psychodynamique aux phenomenes d’addiction et d’agressivite chez les adolescents migrants, de migrants ou « tout venant » confrontes a l’echec scolaire en France. Nous poursuivons deux objectifs. Le premier vise a evaluer le lien entre style cognitif et disposition emotionnelle. Le second porte sur les caracteristiques intrapsychiques et interculturelles sous-jacentes au lien addiction-agressivite-echec scolaire. La recherche est structuree en trois phases : une premiere phase exploratoire quantitative, une deuxieme phase quantitative plus ciblee sur le fonctionnement cognitif et affectif des adolescents, et une troisieme qualitative basee sur l’analyse clinique psychopathologique et interculturelle du materiel recueilli. Il s’agit, au final, de comprendre ce qui se joue a travers l’echec scolaire et la repetition des conduites addictives et agressives.