香港青少年健康學會 社區研討會系列﹝二﹞暨 週年大會 拒絕上學 - 成因、評估與處理之協作 日期： 二零零七年十月十三日 ( 星期六 ) 時間： 週年大會 - 下午 一時三十分至二時三十分 研討會 - 下午 二時三十分至五時 地點： 葵涌瑪嘉烈醫院 H7 演講廳 費用 : 免費 對象： 家長、教師、社工、青年工作者、 臨床心理學家、醫護人員等 拒絕上學：誰協助建構問題？誰協助解決問題？ 香港家庭福利會 吳偉顏女士 督導主任 邱寶琴女士 社會工作員

School Refusal Who contribute to the problem? Who solve the problem?Who solve the problem? Shirley Ng (Supervisor HKFWS )Shirley Ng (Supervisor HKFWS ) Vickie Yau (Social Worker HKFWS)Vickie Yau (Social Worker HKFWS)

School refusal is a problem that is stressful for children, families, and school personnel.

Some adolescents have trouble going back to school after weekends or vacation. Some children leave home in the morning and develop difficulties, as they get closer to school, then are unable to proceed

School phobia : generally refers to fear-based absenteeism, but youths are rarely phobic of school and so this term has been de-emphasized in recent research literature Truancy : generally refers to unexcused, illegal, surreptitious absences, non-anxiety-based absenteeism, absenteeism linked to delinquency or academic problems

School refusal : generally refers to condition involving persistent non-attendance at school, excessive anxiety and somatic complaints

Statistics from the Census & Statistics department (2006) age group1,109, % 939, % age group 920, % 908, % Total2,029, % 1,847, %

Figures from the Hong Kong EMB, reveal that the number of habitual truancy and non-attendance cases Year No.of cases

From the figure of Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) 2007, the school dropout rate of 6-15 age group was 0.186% (1,200).

School refusal is a problem that is stressful for children, families, and school personnel !!!

Disengagement from education decreases the life opportunities of individual Increase the likelihood of unemployment, poverty and homelessness  society burden

Short-term impacts : poor academic performance, family difficulties, and problems with peer relationships. Long-term consequences: academic underachievement, employment difficulties, increased risk for psychiatric illness drug-abuse

There is no one universal cause of truancy.

Adolescents are vulnerable numerous risk factors that have an impact on youth’s behavior. Those risk factors are located in a range of interrelated contexts within adolescents’ life – family, school, peers and community.

Functions that maintain school refusal behaviour: (Kearney & Silverman1993, 2003) 1) Avoidance of stimuli which provoke specific fearfulness 2) Escape from aversive social situation 3) Attention/ concern seeking 4) Positive tangible reinforcement

Suggested Problem Solving Method: 1.Contact parents to reduce positive reinforcement at home  Let parents dig out why children refuse to go to school  Empowered parents the rights to urge children to school  Equip parents the knowledge of positive reinforcement.  Share parents the authoritative and consistent way to discipline the children

2. Cultivate Caring School Environment DEET (1999:11) observe: “School culture appears to be an important factor in combating truancy, with some schools having higher truancy levels than other, even in situations where the background characteristics of students are very similar.” Suggested Problem Solving Method:

Cultivate Caring School Environment a)Don’t try to alienate the students b)Set up Tutoring Team  assist students with learning difficulties or low study motivation c)Dig out students’ interest, offer opportunities to give positive reinforcement d)Train up peer mentors – focus friendship and peers e)Teachers and prefects reach out to lonely students f)Empower students way of protecting themselves  coping self-statement (RET Therapy)

Collaborative with other parties: a) Referral to clinical psychologists and doctors for dealing the hard-core problems b)Referrals to “Community Psychiatrists Team” for reaching students with suspected mental health problems c)Referral to other schools which fit for students’ ability and interest d)If need, call Multi-disciplinary Conference