Essay On School Refusal

School refusal is a young person’s reluctance to attend school. This reluctance is not the result of his intentions, rather its emotional distress and anxiety that leads children to refuse to go to school. When children suffering from school refusal end up going to school, they experience severe emotional upset and mood related symptoms such as crying, and feeling anxious (Berg, 2002 as cited by D. Heyne, personal communication, September 22, 2014). School refusal is sometimes thought to be truancy, this is a misunderstanding. Truancy is an unjustified absence of school, that parents are not aware of, whereas school refusal is understood by teachers and specialists because it is a form of anxiety that distresses the child, and the parents of the child with school refusal are aware that their child is missing school (Berg, 2002 as cited by D. Heyne, personal

Child factors involve a child’s temperament, for example in the case of Michiko, she was very needy, erratic, and volatile (Kawabata, 2001); some people tend to have fears due to their low self-confidence, as in Masao’s case, he feared what other’s thought of him, this low confidence originated from his family pressures and conflicts (Kawabata, 2001). Having separation anxiety has also been found to be a risk factor for the development of school refusal, those suffering from separation anxiety experience major distress when away from their parents, and as they are at school they tend to cry and are unable to enjoy time with peers and are behind with academic work (Kawabata, 2001). Family factors are also discussed, for example, in Masao’s case, his family was not understanding of him, for him masculine identity was very important, and having his sisters and grandfather put pressure on him and