Exploring the views of post-primary school staff on anxiety based school refusal

Abstract

This research explored the views of staff in mainstream post-primary schools in Northern Ireland on Anxiety Based School Refusal (ABSR) by carrying out one-to-one semi-structured interviews. The main research question addressed their awareness and understanding of ABSR and a sub-question considered their views on the barriers and facilitators to providing support and making interventions for young people exhibiting ABSR. The nine participants were from three post-primary schools and held a variety of both teaching and non-teaching roles. Thematic analysis of transcribed data found that participants differed in their conceptualisation of ABSR and this provided the context for the study findings. There were also divergent views on the contributory factors to ABSR (within child, home based or school based). However, there were commonalities in terms of barriers and facilitators to providing support, and in terms of which interventions they perceived as helpful. The implications for Educational Psychology in practice are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.

Date of Award	Dec 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Maria McAleese (Supervisor)