Variables affecting the school adaptation of secondary-school students who do not seek help: attachment, coping style, positivity, and prospects

Abstract

ABSTRACT School refusal is a severe social issue in many countries. For helping students who experience stress, multiple social supports including school counsellors and teachers have been provided. However, these supports may not be useful for ‘non-help-seekers’ – those who do not seek help even when they have serious problems. Given the scarce research on non-help-seekers’ cognition, it is essential to identify internal factors that affect non-help-seekers’ adaptation in school. The current study examined the associations between non-help-seekers’ school adaptation and attachment, stress-coping style, and three psychological variables: trust, positivity, and prospects. Two cross-sectional studies (N = 960, 49.5% boys; N = 658, 51.8% boys, respectively) revealed the importance of attachment, a possibility of interventions to psychological factors, and the limited effect of stress coping strategies when a student’s problem is severe. Several interventions including retrieval-induced forgetting and modelling were suggested as support for non-help-seekers before their problems become dire.