Association between School Refusal Behaviors and Anxiety Level among School-Age Children

Abstract

Background: School refusal is considered a serious problem that may cause many stressors to the child and that also interferes with the child's social and educational achievement. Anxiety may not just associate with “school refusal”, but also including unexcused absences or truancy. The study aimed to investigate the association between school refusal behaviors and anxiety level among school-age children. Design: using a descriptive correlational research design was adopted for this study. Sample: - included 630 school-age children who selected randomly from five primary and preparatory schools at Sohag city in March 2019. Tools: A student demographic data and Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders to assess a child's anxiety and The School Refusal Assessment Scale Revised (SRAS-R). Results: 13.42 ± 2.71 was the mean age of school-age children. Regarding the severity of school refusal was moderate among more than one third of school age children. There was a statistically significant association between School-age children's anxiety and their school refusal behaviors p < 0.05. Conclusion: school refusal behavior was significantly associated with anxiety level among school-age children. A high percentage of school-age children reported that primary reason for school refusal was the desire to stay with one or both parents at home Recommendations: School-age children should be provided with health information about behavioral strategies in the management of school refusal.