School refusal is a complex issue where a child or adolescent consistently avoids going to school or has difficulty attending. School refusal is different from truancy because family and friends know the young person is not attending school, whereas truancy is often hidden. Often, family, friends, and school staff are unable to get a young person to attend. This is a challenge to both schools and the family, and the impacts for children are far reaching with academic, social, mental health, family, and long-term consequences. School refusal and nonattendance is a justice and inequality issue for children and adolescents. It disrupts development and halts normal growing up.
Many factors can contribute to the development of school refusing behaviours including; separation or social anxiety, social difficulties, bullying or peer rejection, loneliness, family difficulties, academic struggles or learning difficulties, mental health and emotional difficulties, transitions such as starting school or changing school, difficulty or conflict with educators, somatic symptoms or externalising symptoms, diversity and difference, and the fear of something bad happening. Risk factors also include parental/caregiver mental illness, single parent or stepparent families, parental unemployment, family violence and low school connectedness. Incidents of school refusal have significantly increased with schools now being more inclusive of diversity and difference.
The immediate impact of school refusal may be physical symptoms (e.g., headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, racing heart, disturbed sleep), social consequences (e.g., social isolation, excluded from friendship groups, worried about peers), emotional presentations (e.g., tearful, angry, self-doubt, decline in self-esteem, generalized worry), and declines in academic performance. Long-term, school refusal sees threatened mental health outcomes for adulthood.
Having a systemic perspective and employing systemic intervention is most useful in addressing school refusal. Schools and families must work together for the child’s benefit and engagement of the child back into school. It is vital not to target the student as the sole location of the problem, but to look beyond the problem at the wider system. A school, taking a systemic view, would begin exploring the difficulties by asking ‘Who are all the stakeholders, both internally and externally?’ Until everyone agrees who is responsible for what, change around school refusal and nonattendance will be difficult.
With all systems involved (family, school, health, human services) and working collaboratively, young people will manifest less distress and the symptomatology of avoidance.
Join us for our next online workshop where we unpack more systemic recommendations for “School Refusal” on Thursday 26 September, 3:30-4:30pm
bower(schools) provide protocols and training to assist leaders and educators to manage inequality, inclusion, and multi-system complexity. To learn more about bower(schools) visit bower(schools).
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