School refusal or phobia is an emotional distress condition that causes children to refuse to attend school. School refusal is different from truancy ( Havik et al., 2015 ) in that the latter entails children refusing to attend school having no fear or feelings towards school and often feel bored or rather angry about going to school instead. According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, school refusal or else didaskaleinophobia affects about 2-5% of children attending school ( Otowa et al., 2016 ). The condition manifests in a couple of ways including frequent stomaches as well as physical complaints. Other manifestations include panic in instances when the child is separated from their caregiver. School refusal is therefore found to affect both the child and the immediate family. Regarding the condition, this article explores the effects of school refusal on family and social relations.
School avoidance can be attributed to some factors including psychological disorders, harsh schooling environment, social problem, and other schooling alternatives ( Inglés et al., 2015 ). For instance, children possessing undiagnosed disabilities make them feel as if schoolwork is punishing. The issues present from an early age but manifest as coursework become complex. In this instance, concentration and organizational issues become more difficult for the learner leading to a negative attitude towards school. As the condition evolves, learners avoid uncomfortable school-related situations. Caregivers should hence be on the lookout for such symptoms to ensure that the child does not develop school phobia. Another cause can be harsh schooling environments. Bullying, for instance, can cause a learner to avoid school for it conditions them or instead exposes them to unbearable and uncontrollable situations making the child feel threatened and frightened while in school. The situation leaves the child isolated and alone ( Inglés et al., 2015) . If the condition persists, the child quickly shrinks in his self-esteem and results in anxiety or severe depression. Further, social problems in school such as fights with friends or lovers sophisticate school life and make the environment uncomfortable or rather unpleasant for the learner which leads to their school phobia. Children also opt to reduce or avoid instances with stressors. In this case, the stressors include scheduled exams, projects, and events. Co-curriculum events may be considered as ‘fun’ events, but school phobic children view them as potential stressors due to potential shame, unwarranted attention, embarrassment, or uncertainty ( Inglés et al., 2015) . Finally, some students develop school phobia since their care providers provide preferable alternatives, and hence they opt to stay at home than going to school. For instance, some caregivers provide video games, television, and movie marathons which condition the child to opt to stay at home and hence develop school refusal. The discussed possible causes of school phobia denote controllable situations in a bid to eradicate school phobia among children. Inglés et al. (2015 ) recommend for a greater diagnostic clarity involving the assistance of a trained clinical psychologist to encourage children to embrace school and do away with the phobia.
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School avoidance has been found to harbor deleterious consequences in the society. For instance, school refusal contributes to increased family disruption and strain ( Martin, 2014 ). Martin (2014) further explains the inability of students to establish close relationships with their peers. A child with the school phobia problem depicts psychotic disorders or anxiety. The disorder develops a lowered self-esteem in them that creates a rift between them and their immediate peers ( Kearney & Diliberto, 2014 ). Parents and the family members are hence not in a position to understand the struggles of the child and thus imposes a disruption or rather an emotional strain on them. The failure of the child to communicate their fears o their caregivers stresses them when trying to figure out the situation that caused their child to remain alone and in anxiety. The child due to their developed introvertiveness poorly socializes with their peers ( Kearney & Diliberto, 2014 ). The child misses a lot on their growth period and experiences an onset of self-destructive behaviors including run-aways, self-hurt, and in extreme cases suicide threats ( Kearney & Diliberto, 2014 ). The child also portrays some negative social relations capacities. This include increased the risk of depression and anxiety that is deleterious in future relations to other people. Also, the child embraces a violent retaliation nature toward their peers and can end up hurting or causing harm – both physical and emotional – to them. In other terms, the child becomes a risk to themselves and to others around them which is disastrous. The effects can also be assessed in financial terms. For instance, when a depressed child causes emotional or physical harm to family and their peers, they seek medical attention that costs them a good fortune ( Martin, 2014 ). In this instance, it can be concluded that school refusal can be tied to financial implications. Further, a child refusing to go to school wastes resources that their family honored to the child in economic terms these resources include school fees and other activity fees.
School refusal comes at a great cost and hence ought to be dealt with. Prevention and treatment of the disorder causing the phobia are the only two possibilities. However, prevention is better than cure, and hence caregivers are advised to be on the lookout for such symptoms in a bid to eradicate the deleterious condition. The level of impairment and diagnosis of an anxiety disorder can be assessed in a number of ways including the child behavior checklist (CBCL), the SACRED (The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders), the Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Children’s Global Rating Scale ( Heyne et al., 2017 ). After the assessment, a child diagnosed with an anxiety disorder that can lead to school refusal then proceeds to the treatment stage. The treatment involves several psychological approaches such as systematic desensitization and cognitive behavior therapy ( Mohatt et al., 2014 ). Mohatt et al. (2014) further suggest other techniques including exposure therapy and operant behavioral techniques. The cognitive behavior therapy, for instance, entails the correction of inappropriate and maladaptive behaviors. In the systematic desensitization, the child is helped to modify their distressing emotional reaction to school gradually so that the child can eventually return to school without distress experiences. The exposure therapy, on the other hand, exposes the child to emotionally increasing the intensity of distressing conditions in a stepwise fashion coupled with encouragement in a bid to modify maladaptive cognitions to help the child gradually tolerate previously disturbing experiences without distress. Finally, operant behavioral techniques reward the child for desired behaviors in a bid to increase their frequency. All the discussed treatments are aimed at helping the student to restructure their thoughts and actions into a rather more adaptive as well as assertive framework for the end goal of allowing them to return to school rapidly without distress. Also, teachers have the responsibility to offer a welcoming and safe environment in the school by encouraging a zero tolerance for bullying and availing guidance sessions.
In conclusion, school phobia is emotional distress among children. It is caused by some inappropriate situations including psychological disorders, harsh schooling environment, social problem, and other schooling alternatives. The disorder affects both the family and social relations of the child. In this regards, the child harbors lowered self-esteem that can eventually cause suicide attempts. Further, the child poses a reasonable threat to their peers due to their violent nature. In financial terms, the children suffering from the disorders impose financial costs on parents and peers through wasted resources and treatment costs respectively. The condition is assessed and treated with therapy. Further, teachers are encouraged to provide an enabling learning environment to ensure that students learn without distress.
References
Havik, T., Bru, E., & Ertesvåg, S. K. (2015). School factors associated with school refusal-and truancy-related reasons for school non-attendance. Social Psychology of Education , 18 (2), 221-240.
Heyne, D. A., Vreeke, L. J., Maric, M., Boelens, H., & Van Widenfelt, B. M. (2017). Functional assessment of school attendance problems: An adapted version of the School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders , 25 (3), 178-192.
Inglés, C. J., Gonzálvez-Maciá, C., García-Fernández, J. M., Vicent, M., & Martínez-Monteagudo, M. C. (2015). Current status of research on school refusal: European Journal of Education and Psychology , 8 (1), 37-52.
Kearney, C. A., & Diliberto, R. (2014). School refusal behavior: The Wiley handbook of cognitive behavioral therapy .
Martin, A. J. (2014). The role of ADHD in academic adversity: Disentangling ADHD effects from other personal and contextual factors. School Psychology Quarterly , 29 (4), 395.
Mohatt, J., Bennett, S. M., & Walkup, J. T. (2014). ‘Treatment of separation, generalized, and social anxiety disorders in youths. American Journal of Psychiatry ,’ 171 (7), 741-748.
Otowa, T., Hek, K., Lee, M., Byrne, E. M., Mirza, S. S., Nivard, M. G. & Fanous, A. (2016). Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of anxiety disorders: Molecular Psychiatry , 21 (10), 1391.
