Body Mapping: Piloting an approach to explore the experiences of young people in drug and alcohol

residential treatment

Sophia Macken, Sally Nathan, Michelle Jersky, Katherine Boydell, Alexandra Gibson

Introduction

Commonly employed research approaches do not always provide an in-depth understanding of young people’s perspectives and experiences. Arts-based approaches offer an alternate, innovative method. This pilot study examines the utility of body mapping, an arts-based method, as a way to improve understandings of the lives and experiences of adolescents who are admitted to a drug and alcohol residential treatment program.

Design and Methods

Two workshops were held at an adolescent residential treatment facility in Australia. The

workshops focused on using body mapping techniques to explore the young people’s

strengths and support networks. Five male residents and three females participated.

Semi-structured follow-up interviews with participants were conducted and triangulated with other data sources to examine the utility and effectiveness of body mapping as a research tool.

Key Findings

The data revealed that body mapping engaged the participants, reduced verbal barriers and facilitated dialogue on their sources of strength and support.

Conclusions

Visual methods, such as body mapping, hold promise for optimising research with younger participants as they are an engaging and less confrontational form of data collection compared with interviews alone.