Factors involved in the feelings related to school avoidance among high school students in Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify the factors that are involved in the feelings related to school avoidance of high school students in order to develop a support method and a strategy for preventing school maladjustment. A total of 1756 students from three public high schools in Nagano Prefecture in Japan agreed to participate in the study. They were asked to complete the Feelings of School Avoidance (FSA) Scale, as well as information relating to their demographic details, living environment, lifestyle, and psychosocial factors. Valid responses were obtained from 1178 students. The mean scores of all three subscales of the FSA Scale increased with the students' grade. In the hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis, the students' age, family size, and social support were excluded from the predictors and the anthropophobic tendency and social skills were analyzed separately in order to avoid multicollinearity. When the anthropophobic tendency was included, the students' grade, anthropophobic tendency, self-esteem, and support by school friends were significant predictors for all the FSA subscales. When the level of social skills was included instead of the anthropophobic tendency, the analysis yielded similar results, except that the students' social skills and unidentified complaints were selected instead of the anthropophobic tendency. Among the high school students, the anthropophobic tendency contributed to their feelings related to school avoidance most strongly. These results suggest the necessity of understanding students' anthropophobic tendency in detail, developing effective support in order to promote their social skills and self-esteem, and helping them to make friends, as well as improving their human relationships in order to prevent school maladjustment.