SCHOOL PHOBIA: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment

At specific times, boys and girls make excuses for not attending school. Sometimes, they say they feel physically unwell on the basis of a headache or an upset stomach. How many times does a child show his disinterest in going to school because he has fought with a classmate or a teacher? The truth is that there are variables that influence when determining the absence of a child to an educational establishment.

Faced with these situations, many parents tend to be concerned when this behavior persists over time and a great disorientation occurs in them as a result of not knowing the reasons. The reality is that there are children who have a great fear of going to school and this has various unfavorable consequences in their daily lives. Having strong and relevant data on this topic can provide us with tools to help us address this problem. Do you want to know more about this? In this Psychology-Online article we will provide you with information about the School phobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment.

Index

1. What is school phobia
2. Symptoms of school phobia
3. Causes of school phobia
4. Treatment of school phobia

When we talk about school phobia, we are referring to a anxiety disorder in which a excessive and irrational fearto attend a school. According to the DSM-V^[1], school phobia is within the category of specific phobias because this clinical picture is related to the school situation.

Characteristics of school phobia

If we take into account the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-V, the characteristics of school phobia are:

• Fear and / or anxiety in front of any aspect related to the school.
• The object and / or the specific situation are triggers of fear or anxiety.
• Avoidance of situations of anxiety or fear.
• Fear and / or anxiety disproportionate to the real danger that a situation or object represents.
• The duration is six months or more.
• Deterioration of the work, social and family area.

How to identify school phobia? When determining a clinical picture of social phobia, it is important to take into account the demonstrations presented by boys and girls with suffer. As a result of this circumstance, we will locate the main symptoms of school phobia:

• Prolonged crying
• Screams.
• Headache.
• Stomach ache.
• Sickness.
• Vomiting
• Difficulty getting to sleep.
• Daytime enuresis.
• Sadness.
• Irritability.
• Avoidance of school situations.
• Anxiety.

Although these symptoms can be found in any boy or girl who does not want to attend school, the truth is that this does not imply that we are facing a picture of school phobia. Given this, the diagnosis must be made by a health professional, since he will be in charge of evaluating the patient's conditions and supervising the clinical evolution.

One of the most important aspects to consider resides in the causes that originate this disorder of school anxiety, since they can give us a guideline about the most effective ways to address the trouble. In the following points we will develop the main causes of school phobia.

Environmental factors linked to the school

At a general level, certain situations from the past can influence behaviors in the present. In the case of boys and girls with school phobia, it may have occurred as a result of having lived unpleasant moments, both with teachers and with other colleagues.

As examples, we can mention verbal and / or physical fights, mistreatment by other people, sexual abuse, difficulties in social relationships or school demands, among others.

Environmental factors linked to the home

School phobia can be caused by constant changes of addresses, fights between parents or due to exacerbated demands towards the minor, among other factors. These variables produce low self-esteem in the boy or girl that leads to a great withdrawal from school attendance. In these situations, we recommend the following activities to strengthen self-esteem in children.

How to help a child with school phobia? Despite the peculiarities that school phobia entails, there are a series of treatments that have shown good efficacy in addressing this problem. Here's how to help a child with a school phobia:

Psychological therapy

Today, many therapies help the child to function else in the school environment, since the emotions, thoughts and behaviors that arise in situations that trigger anxiety and / or anguish are worked on.

On the one hand, short-term therapies focus on solving problems in a limited period of time. of sessions, in which various strategies are carried out that provide tools to the person. On the other hand, longer duration therapies focus their objective on locating the origin of people's symptoms. This has the consequence that the child may act differently in the face of school phobia.

Orientation to parents

If you are wondering how to intervene in school phobia, one of the most effective methods is to offer parent workshops of boys and girls who suffer from school phobia, in which tools are provided that enable improved communication and improve the educational experience of the minor.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to School phobia: what is it, symptoms, causes and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Arlington: Editorial Médica Panamericana.

• Csotti, M. (2011). School phobia, panic attacks and anxiety in children. 1st ed., Buenos Aires: Grupo Editorial Lumen.
• Protocols of the Spanish Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2008). School phobia. Recovered from: https://www.aeped.es/sites/default/files/documentos/fobia_escolar_0.pdf