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Paper short abstract:

Through body mapping with children and focus groups with parents, this study explores lived experiences and perceptions of resilience in Black and South Asian children from Muslim families in East London. We will reflect on carrying out body mapping with children as an embodied and creative method.

Paper long abstract:

Many children are considered ‘at-risk’ of failing to thrive due to chronic stressors occurring within their environments. Understanding resilience in pre-adolescence is important to inform interventions that support psychosocial wellbeing. However, there is limited research on children’s interpretations and diverse experiences of resilience, with research historically using quantitative instruments tailored to White, middle-class Western adults and adolescents. Embodied and arts-based methods, such as body mapping, can complement traditional approaches through their focus on visual and symbolic processes to understand subjective, embodied experiences of resilience.

Our paper presents the results of a study we conducted using body mapping to explore lived experiences and perceptions of resilience in Black and South Asian children aged 7-12 from Muslim families living in East London. East London’s Muslim community represents a diverse, growing population. Despite being disproportionately affected by deprivation and racial and cultural discrimination, this population is underrepresented in resilience research. This study consisted of a one-day workshop including body mapping with children (n=12) and focus groups with their mothers (n=9) to capture multiple perspectives on children’s socioecological resilience factors.

Whilst systematic visuo-textual analysis is ongoing, initial analysis suggests that a range of factors are perceived as important for children’s resilience, including family and community bonds, religion and team sports. Here, we will report preliminary findings and methodological considerations for using body mapping with children for creative and non-verbal engagement and to deconstruct power imbalances between researchers and children. We will also discuss how this research informs culturally-relevant, strengths-based interventions to improve children’s resilience.