Abstract
BackgroundSchool absenteeism (SA) is associated with anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior. It is a risk factor for academic difficulties and school dropout, which predict problems in adulthood such as social, work-related, and health problems. The main goal of this study is to examine the initial effectiveness of a modular transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention (Back2School) for increasing school attendance and decreasing psychological problems, relative to a comparator control arm (treatment as usual [TAU]).Methods/designOne hundred sixty children, aged 7 to 16 years, will be randomly assigned to either Back2School or TAU. The design is a two (Back2School and TAU) by four (preassessment [T1], postassessment [T2], and 3-month [T3] and 1-year [T4] assessments) mixed between-within design. The primary outcome is school attendance based on daily registration. Secondary outcomes pertain to youth psychosocial functioning, quality of life, bullying, self-efficacy, and teacher-parent collaboration. These secondary outcomes are measured via youth, parent, and teacher reports.DiscussionThis study will provide critically needed empirical evidence on the initial effectiveness of a manualized treatment program for youth with SA. If the intervention is found to be effective, the program can be further implemented and tested in a larger school health effectiveness trial.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03459677. Retrospectively registered on 9 March 2018.
Highlights
School absenteeism (SA) is associated with anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior
Almost all children are absent from school a few days during a school year owing to illness or other accepted causes, and this level of absence may be considered as nonproblematic and probably without adverse consequences
The results showed that the modular approach outperformed the other treatments on most clinical outcome measures [15]
Summary
School absenteeism (SA) is associated with anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior It is a risk factor for academic difficulties and school dropout, which predict problems in adulthood such as social, workrelated, and health problems. School is a central context for youth development [1], playing a major role in teaching youth the values of society and preparing them for adult life Absence from this central context may be precipitated and/or maintained by anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior [2,3,4]. School absenteeism (SA) is a risk factor for academic difficulties and school dropout, all of which are additional predictors of social, work-related, and health problems in adulthood [5,6,7]. Almost all children are absent from school a few days during a school year owing to illness or other accepted causes, and this level of absence may be considered as nonproblematic and probably without adverse consequences.
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