School Refusal Behaviour Profiles and Academic Self-Attributions in Language and Literature

Abstract

School refusal behaviour has a major impact on the lives of children and adolescents, seriously affecting their personal, academic and social adjustment. The objectives of this research were: (1) to identify, using latent profile analysis, school refusal behaviour profiles based on the functional model and (2) to analyse the relationship between the identified school refusal behaviour profiles and academic self-attributions in language and literature. The School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised (SRAS-R) and the Sydney Attribution Scale (SAS) were administered to 926 Spanish students (51% boys) aged 8 to 11 (M = 9.57; SD = 1.07). Four school refusal behaviour profiles were obtained: low school refusal behaviour, school refusal behaviour by positive reinforcement, mixed school refusal behaviour and high mixed school refusal behaviour. School refuser profiles, characterised by high scores on the first three factors of the SRAS-R (high mixed and mixed school refusal behaviour profiles), reported higher scores on an academic self-attributional style, in which they associate their failures with a lack of ability and effort. Results are discussed, considering the relationship between school refusal behaviour and unsuitable attributional styles in language and literature. Promoting effective coping skills to deal with school failure situations will seek to improve, as far as possible, the needs of all students contributing to a healthy learning environment.

Classifying Students With School Refusal Behavior and Their Relationship to Learning Strategies

“…The coefficients of internal consistency in this study were 0.72, 0.75, 0.71, and 0.69, respectively, for each of the four factors. Prior studies carried out with Spanish (Gonzálvez et al, 2021), German (Walter et al, 2017) and North American (Haight et al, 2011) have shown the suitability and applicability of this instrument in adolescent population.…”

Understanding school refusal behavior in adolescence: Risk profiles and attributional style for academic results

“…In respect of the profile solutions, these works coincide in finding a group characterized by low levels of ANA, ESE, PAS, and PTR, which has been predominantly called non-SRB. Five in eight studies identified a mixed profile with high levels of explanatory factors based on both negative reinforcement (ANA and ESE) and positive reinforcement (PAS) (Giménez-Miralles, Gonzálvez, Sanmartín et al, 2021;Gonzálvez, Kearney et al, 2018). The mixed profile has been named anxious SRB, since previous studies found that school refusers whose causes of the ongoing SRB are the first three SRAS-R dimensions tended to show high levels of anxious symptoms (e.g., Fernández-Sogorb et al, 2018;Gonzálvez, Inglés, Fernández-Sogorb et al, 2020).…”

“…The anxious and high SRB groups are considered risk profiles, because they have proved to be related to low self-concept , high levels of psychopathological symptoms such as depression or anxiety Gonzálvez, Kearney et al, 2018), and family conflicts . Regarding the academic field, it was found that Spanish adolescents with an anxious SRB profile showed low scores in learning strategies, motivation towards learning being one of the variables examined (Giménez-Miralles, Gonzálvez, Sanmartín et al, 2021). Nevertheless, empirical evidence on the relationship between academic motivation and SRB profiles remains scarce.…”

“…As said before, several studies have examined the association between explanatory factors of SRB based on Kearney and Silverman's functional model (1993) and academic selfattributions based on Weiner's attributional theory (Weiner, 1985). Samples consisted of Spanish children aged 8-11 (Giménez-Miralles, Gonzálvez et al, 2021; and Chilean adolescents aged 13-18 (Lagos-San Martín et al, 2014). On the one hand, participants who showed SRB based on negative reinforcement (Giménez-Miralles, or both negative and positive reinforcement (specifically, ANA, ESE, and PAS) (Gonzálvez et al, 2021;Lagos-San Martín et al, 2014) tended to attribute their academic failures more to ability and effort.…”

Unlearning school attendance and its problems: Moving from historical categories to postmodern dimensions

“…At an analytic level, dimensional clinical profiles may be useful for informing broad categories. Gonzálvez and colleagues have been a leader in this approach, having investigated numerous clinical profiles of school attendance problems based on social and school anxiety, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and negative affect, among other variables (e.g., Gonzálvez et al, 2019bGonzálvez et al, , 2020Gonzálvez et al, , 2021. In addition, Kearney and colleagues have developed functional-based clinical profiles of school attendance problems based on the relative strength of maintaining factors related to negative and positive reinforcement (e.g., Kearney, 2007Kearney, , 2019.…”