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Scared of school?

School refusal is a term used to describe refusal to attend school due to anxiety or fear. This website was created to provide information about school refusal as well as support, advice and a community for school refusers.

For more information on school refusal, read our FAQ topic here.


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School Refusal FAQ
Topic Started: 8 Sep 2009, 09:43 PM (479 Views)
Rebecca
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School refusal doesn't seem to be as well known as it should be, so to give you all a fair understanding of school refusal, I figured I'd write this FAQ, which is basically a nice combination of the information you'd get from entering "school refusal" into Google and my own experience and understanding of school refusal.

Feedback and suggestions would be appreciated.

If you found this article helpful or interesting, please link your friends and family to it.

School Refusal FAQ

What is school refusal?

School refusal is a term used to refer to refusal to attend school due to emotional distress. It was coined as an alternative to the term "school phobia", as some cases of school-related anxiety may have accompanied other anxiety disorders such as seperation anxiety.

Whilst 1 in 4 children may occasionally refuse to attend school, only about an approximate 1% to 5% of students routinely struggle to attend school.

What causes school refusal?

There are two main types of school refusal: a phobia towards school or seperation anxiety from being away from family and home. However, the development of school refusal is thought to be brought on by a large number of variables.

Often, school refusers...
  • ...Have a history of and/or currently exhibit signs of seperation anxiety, social anxiety/social phobia and/or depression.

  • ...May have fears concerning the school environment such as bullying as well as social or academic difficulties or pressures.

  • ...Had a family background problem, such as "ineffectual organization and discipline, often with an absent or uninvolved father, emotional over-involvement with the child, with excessive anxiety about physical symptoms and difficulties seeking or using help from teachers when school problems first emerge."

  • ...Are between are five and eleven (due to changing schools) and fourteen to fifteen (due to accumulating social and academic pressures).

  • ...Are commonly cited to have developed school refusal due an ill parent (interestingly enough, some develop school refusal after the parent's recovery), divorcing parents, parents having frequent arguments or other marital difficulties, a death in the family of a friend, moving house (though my source article for this point adds "during the first years of elementary school"), jealousy over a new sibling and/or excessive parental worry over the school refuser.

This list of what is believed to be common factors of school refusal lead me to assume that any significant change or disturbance within a child or adolescent's environment may contribute to and have a link with the development of school refusal.

How does it differ from truancy?

School refusal is not the same as truancy. Truancy and school refusal may occasionally overlap (presumably by coincidence), but truants and school refusers will generally exhibit very different characteristics:

TruancySchool Refusal
Truants usually will feel no emotional distress with regards to school. They may instead feel bored or angry with it, but usually, truants will miss school because there is simply something they'd rather be doing. School refusal is actually characterised by emotional distress related to school. A school refuser will often have intense feelings of anxiety and may have panic attacks when facing the propect of attending school.
A truant will often miss school without their parents' prior knowledge or permission. Parents will usually be aware of a school refuser's absence and allow the school refuser to miss school. (Note that this tends to be out of concern for the school refuser, not out of neglect or over-permissiveness.)
Truancy is sometimes a planned social activity - they may miss school to go out with friends. Usually, a school refuser will stay at home when missing school. Since school refusal is not planned, school refusers will not miss school to meet up with friends.
Truancy is sometimes connected with frequent anti-social behaviour, including delinquent and disruptive acts such as lying and stealing, often when in the company of similarly anti-social peers.School refusers will usually not exhibit any anti-social behaviour.
Truancy has no associated physical symptoms.School refusers may have physical symptoms reminiscent of those associated with anxiety, such as back pain, abdominal pain, headaches and sore throats.
Truants will usually show no interest in completing schoolwork and are unwilling to conform to behavioural or academic expectations. School refusers will often be willing to complete schoolwork outside of school and often have no history of poor behaviour at school.
Truancy may be a deliberate act of defiance as they are unwilling to attend school.School refusers may be willing to attend school and comply with their expectation to do so, but find themselves unable to.


I have problems with school refusal, what can I do about it?

(If you're not in the care of your parents or live in a household with only one parent, this section still applies. Just replace "parents" with "guardians", "parent", etc.)
  • Make sure that your parents and your school understand that you have problems with school refusal and not truancy or some other problem so that you can be helped appropriately.

  • If they don't already know, be honest with your parents and your school about what you think might be causing your school refusal. Some school refusers may find this especially difficult if the cause is something like a low self-esteem, bullying and social or academic difficulties at school, but your parents need to know so that you can be helped appropriately.

  • Work out if the cause of your school refusal can be removed, compromised or avoided. For example, difficulties with a certain teacher, student or lesson often have a workaround. If you have anxiety with regards to seperation from your parents, it may be possible to arrange times where you can call your parents, such as during break times. If you're not sure if the cause of your school refusal has a workaround, talk to your school and/or parents. If necessary, ask your parents if you can move schools.

  • Seek help from a counsellor or psychologist. If your parents won't let you see a counsellor or psychologist, look for child helplines in your area, they are usually free and confidential and will not show up on your phone bill, and some allow you to get help through their website. The best known child helpline in the UK is Childline, and you can "ask Sam" for advice online or call them at 0800 1111. Sadly, I cannot give you any recommendations for helplines if you live outside of the UK at this moment.

  • If all else fails, try to seek alternative types of schooling. This should be a last resort, as it can often be troublesome, expensive and lacking in the same oppurtunities that you would get from more conventional schooling.





Sources:

Wikipedia's School Refusal article

"School Refusal in Anxiety-Disordered Children and Adolescents" from the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

"School Refusal in Children and Adolescents" by WANDA P. FREMONT, M.D., State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York

School Refusal Causes from eMedicineHealth

School Refusal page from HandsOnScotland Toolkit

"Introduction to school refusal" from NHS Evidence
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