Schulverweigerung und psychische Störungen: Merkmale von schulverweigernden Kindern und Jugendlichen und ihren Familien einer kinder- und jugendpsychiatrischen »Schulverweigererambulanz«

Abstract

Based on a review of medical reports, a sample of 89 patients of a specialized school refusal outpatient unit of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Essen, Germany, is described. Variables included psychiatric diagnoses and treatment recommendations as well as individual and family characteristics such as type of school absence (school refusal vs. truancy), intelligence, anxiety, school career, parental occupational status, and parental divorce. Furthermore, differences between three groups of patients (anxious school refusers, truants, mixed school refusers) were explored. The results showed a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders and associated risk factors in the sample. Although some of the expected differences between the groups were obtained, the results yielded much overlap between anxious school refusers and truants and thus tended to stress the similarities among children who refuse to attend school.