The Mediator Role of Academic Resilience in the Relationship of Anxiety Sensitivity, Social and Adaptive Functioning, and School Refusal With School Attachment in High School Students.

İsmail Seçer,Sümeyye Ulaş

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00557

İsmail Seçer, Sümeyye Ulaş

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00557

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Abstract

School has an important function in providing the environment for young people to acquire many skills and knowledge required by contemporary life, but the problems of attachment to school and problematic attendance all over the world reveal an increasing statistic. It is thought that some negative processes such as anxiety sensitivity, social and adaptive functioning, and school refusal can affect this problem. On the other hand, it is considered that the academic resilience of young people has an important protective function in terms of these risk factors. For this purpose, the mediator role of academic resilience between anxiety sensitivity, social and adaptive functioning, and school refusal and school attachment were examined in a Turkish sample of 452 high school students. In the process of data collection, the school refusal assessment scale, social and adaptive functioning scale, and academic resilience scale were adapted and used in the Turkish culture. In the data analysis, the structural equation model was used to determine the direct and indirect predictive effects between the variables. The results of the study showed that academic resilience fully mediated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and school attachment, whereas it partially mediated the relationship between social and adaptive functioning and school refusal and school attachment. Based on the results of the study, it was evaluated that high academic resilience has a strong protective function against the problems of negative school attachment and problematic school absenteeism among young people, and this finding was discussed within the context of literature.

Highlights

School attachment and attendance are important for young people in terms of the environment they need for academic life; opportunities for the development of social competence and skills; and the ability to acquire professional skills, to solve problems, and to work together with others for a specific purpose (Tanner-Smith and Wilson, 2013; Kearney and Graczyk, 2014)
When the findings and explanation coefficients are taken into consideration, it is understood that social and adaptive functioning has a strong effect on school attachment (59%), followed by school refusal and anxiety sensitivity, respectively
The effects of anxiety sensitivity, social and adaptive functioning, and school refusal on school attachment can be discussed as direct effects

Summary

Introduction

School attachment and attendance are important for young people in terms of the environment they need for academic life; opportunities for the development of social competence and skills; and the ability to acquire professional skills, to solve problems, and to work together with others for a specific purpose (Tanner-Smith and Wilson, 2013; Kearney and Graczyk, 2014). It has a pattern related to situations such as substance use, tendency to violence, suicidal tendency, risky sexual behaviors, and being involved in crime (Kearney, 2008b; Kearney and Graczyk, 2014; Aslan, 2018), and processes such as anxiety disorders, psychological adjustment problems, and developing antisocial behaviors (McShane et al, 2001; Knollmann et al, 2010; Rocque et al, 2017; Mazerolle et al, 2018) In this sense, it can be inferred from the results of these studies that problematic absenteeism is a problem area related to many of the personal, social, and academic characteristics of young people (Fornander and Kearney, 2019)

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