Truancy, School Refusal and Anxiety

Abstract

Truancy in French technical secondary schools is a source of considerable concern which has given rise to the present study. However, issues associated with truancy seldom take into account psychological criteria, as it tends to give rise to an immediate institutional reaction. However, truancy may not be solely the re.ection of a lack of motivation or oppositional de.ant disorder. On the contrary, truancy is considered here as a refusal to attend school in relation to different types of anxiety. Positive reinforcement, a category of school refusal de.ned by Kearney and Silverman (1993) was found to be prevalent in the study described here, re.ecting that a form of social desirability tended to hide an admitted and recognized anxiety. It is concluded that a deeper differential study based on psychological criteria is needed. We emphasize the need to conceive truancy, institutionally as well as scienti.cally, as a process that must take into account emotional dimensions.

Functional Assessment of School Attendance Problems: An Adapted Version of the School Refusal Assessment Scale–Revised

“…The PTR condition was unrelated to measures of internalizing behavior, which contrasts with research on the original SRAS (Brandibas et al, 2004;Kearney & Silverman, 1993) but corresponds with some SRAS-R findings (Haight et al, 2011;Kearney, 2002b). This further supports the notion that the PTR subscale of the adapted SRAS-R measures the construct intended by the author of the SRAS-R. An unexpected finding was the correlation between ANA and youth-reported externalizing behavior.…”

“…As expected, the two negative reinforcement conditions did not correlate with measures of externalizing behavior. Brandibas, Jeunier, Clanet, and Fourasté (2004) found that the ANA functional condition correlated positively with youth reports of state and trait anxiety. Regarding the positive reinforcement conditions, youth reports of separation anxiety converged with PA (Higa et al, Running head: ADAPTED SRAS-R 8 2002) and parent reports of externalizing behavior converged with PA (Kearney & Silverman, 1993) and PTR (Higa et al, 2002;Kearney & Silverman, 1993).…”

“…Results contrary to expectations were also reported. Kearney and Silverman (1993) Moreover, Brandibas et al (2004) 3 found that separation anxiety was positively correlated with the PTR functional condition.…”

La Construction de l’objet dans la recherche clinique : l’exemple du refus de l’école

“…Pour cela, nous avons choisi comme exemple celui du refus de l'école sur lequel nous avons produit quelques travaux de recherche (Brandibas, Jeunier, & Fourasté, 2000 ;Brandibas, 2002 ;Brandibas & Favard, 2003 ;Brandibas, Sudres, Bernoussi, & Fourasté, 2003 ;Brandibas, Jeunier, Clanet, & Fourasté, 2004 ;Sudres, Brandibas, & Fourasté, 2004), et pour lequel cette réflexion est peut-être plus éclairante car soumise d'une part à la question du signalement et donc à la subjectivité des adultes de l'école qui vont signifier qu'un élève est en difficulté, et d'autre part, historiquement, étudiée par les psychologues à partir de l'école obligatoire et de la dichotomie entre motivation (vouloir) et capacité (pouvoir). Après avoir développé ces deux points, nous proposerons quelques réflexions sur les types de savoirs auxquels fait appel le refus de l'école, et nous interrogerons sa position dans la théorie, afin de schématiser le cheminement possible dans la construction de cet objet au regard des niveaux de connaissance en jeu.…”

“…La phobie scolaire se réfère à la psychanalyse tandis que le refus d'aller à l'école est une observation ou un constat ne reposant sur aucun postulat. Il n'en reste pas moins que le refus d'aller à l'école comme la phobie scolaire présentent des caractéristiques communes et pas des moindres (Brandibas, Jeunier, Clanet et Fourasté, 2004) : cette grande anxiété ressentie, des affects dépressifs souvent rencontrés, l'absence de comportements asociaux, les manifestations somatiques, et chose remarquable, la participation plus ou moins active des parents.…”