School-Based Behavioural Consultation for School-Refusal Behaviour

Naoki Maeda

doi:10.5539/ijps.v8n1p40

Abstract

<p>Through three case reports, the present study explores a school-based behavioural consultation for school-refusal behaviour. A two-part intervention was established in this study. The first part consisted of a school counsellor providing behavioural consultation for school-refusal behaviour to the parents and school staff and the second part used an attendance process which parents and school staff escorted children who are unwilling to engage in treatment process to school. Through a series of intervention, all participants were able to attend school from the first week of intervention, and a school-based behavioural consultation using escorting school attendance was effective in treating these children. In addition, this study found that all the parties involved in this process should spend most of their energy during the first crucial week of intervention.<strong></strong></p>

Highlights

In recent years, school-refusal behaviour has become a common and serious problem in the Japanese school system, which requires six years of compulsory education in primary school and three years in secondary school
The present study explores the effectiveness of a school-based behavioural consultation with parents and school staff for school-refusal behaviour
The first part consisted of a school counsellor providing behavioural consultation for school-refusal behaviour to the parents and school staff and the second part used an attendance process in which parents or school staff escorted children to school

Summary

Introduction

School-refusal behaviour has become a common and serious problem in the Japanese school system, which requires six years of compulsory education in primary school (first to sixth grades) and three years in secondary school (seventh to ninth grades). Japan defines school-refusing children as those who are absent from or unable to attend school for over 30 days per year due to physical, psychological, social and/or emotional factors, with the exception of disease and economic reasons (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology-Japan, 2009). Prolonged school-refusal behaviour leads to academic problems and interferes with social development (Pina, Zerr, & Gonzales, 2009) and mental health (Blagg, 1987; Dube & Orpinas, 2009; Fremont, 2003; Kearney, Pursell, & Alvarez, 2001), and not surprisingly, the rapid increase in social withdrawal following school-refusal behaviour has become a profound social problem in Japanese society Given this growing problem, the Japanese government has, over the past few years, allocated, in addition to the regular school staff, part-time school counsellors, school assistants and school social workers to secondary schools throughout the country. The situation is expected to worsen before it gets better

Methods

Results

Conclusion