Psychosocial Interventions for School Refusal Behavior in Children and Adolescents

ABSTRACT— This article reviews empirical evidence for the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for school refusal behavior. Data corresponding to 8 experimental single‐case and 7 group‐design studies are presented. Across studies, behavioral and cognitive‐behavioral treatments emerged as promising lines of intervention. These interventions produced improvements in school attendance and youths’ symptom levels (e.g., anxiety, fear, depression, anger) based on this study’s examination of effect sizes. The article concludes with suggestions for interventionists, researchers, and policy makers attempting to deal with the problem of school refusal.