Abstract
BackgroundAnxiety and depression are common in young people and are associated with a range of adverse outcomes. Research has suggested a relationship between emotional disorder and poor school attendance, and thus poor attendance may serve as a red flag for children at risk of emotional disorder. This systematic review aims to investigate the association between child and adolescent emotional disorder and poor attendance at school.MethodsWe will search electronic databases from a variety of disciplines including medicine, psychology, education and social sciences, as well as sources of grey literature, to identify any quantitative studies that investigate the relationship between emotional disorder and school attendance. Emotional disorder may refer to diagnoses of mood or anxiety disorders using standardised diagnostic measures, or measures of depression, anxiety or “internalising symptoms” using a continuous scale. Definitions for school non-attendance vary, and we aim to include any relevant terminology, including attendance, non-attendance, school refusal, school phobia, absenteeism and truancy. Two independent reviewers will screen identified papers and extract data from included studies. We will assess the risk of bias of included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Random effects meta-analysis will be used to pool quantitative findings when studies use the same measure of association, otherwise a narrative synthesis approach will be used.DiscussionThis systematic review will provide a detailed synthesis of evidence regarding the relationship between childhood emotional disorder and poor attendance at school. Understanding this relationship has the potential to assist in the development of strategies to improve the identification of and intervention for this vulnerable group.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42016052961
Highlights
Anxiety and depression are common in young people and are associated with a range of adverse outcomes
Based on a previous systematic review on a similar topic [21] and an initial scoping search, we anticipate that studies will vary in the way they investigate the relationship between these variables, with some treating emotional disorder as the exposure and school attendance as the outcome and others considering poor attendance the exposure and emotional disorder the outcome
This systematic review will provide a detailed synthesis of the evidence base regarding the relationship between emotional disorder in children and adolescents and poor attendance at school
Summary
Anxiety and depression are common in young people and are associated with a range of adverse outcomes. This systematic review aims to investigate the association between child and adolescent emotional disorder and poor attendance at school. Rationale Emotional disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, with worldwide prevalence estimates of 7 and 3% for anxiety and depressive disorders, respectively [1]. Emotional disorders are identified as leading contributors to Finning et al Systematic Reviews (2017) 6:121 of children fail to access effective treatment [8, 9]. Since the majority of children spend a large proportion of their time at school, teachers and other educational practitioners are well-placed to identify potential emotional disorders in young people. In the UK, education is compulsory for all children from the school term immediately following their fifth birthday, and any child absent for 10% or more of school “sessions” (morning or afternoon) is considered “persistently absent” [11]
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