School Refusal describes periods of absence from school resulting from a student’s emotional distress at the prospect of school attendance. It is characterised by the presence of anxiety or other emotional distress in the student, its occurrence with parental knowledge despite parental efforts to encourage attendance, and an absence of antisocial behaviour beyond that involved in efforts to avoid school (Berg, 2002).
There is international concern that school refusal prevalence has sharply increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, although evidence to quantify the extent of the problem is lacking (Clark, 2023; Hamilton, 2024). This has led to increased government focus, with inquiries conducted in the UK (House of Commons Education Committee, 2023) and Australia (Parliament of Australia, 2023), and a summit leading to announcement of additional actions and resources in the USA (The White House, 2024).
Objectives
Current research is yet to establish the epidemiology of school refusal, and factors predictive of later school refusal emergence are still to be identified. This project aims to determine the prevalence and epidemiology of school refusal in Australian students and establish a screening measure to proactively detect students at risk of school refusal before its emergence.
Methodology
This project comprises three studies:
- Characterise school refusal in Australia based on descriptive analysis of data from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; AIFS, 2024).
- Analyse data from LSAC in order to identify factors predictive of later school refusal emergence.
- Use the predictive factors identified in study 2 to develop, and subsequently pilot, a screening measure aimed at proactively identifying students at risk of experiencing school refusal.