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

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? • Shirley Ng (Supervisor 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

2001 2006 0-14 age group 1,109,41716.5% 939,20013.7% 15-24 age group 920,45513.7% 908,60013.3% Total 2,029,86230.2% 1,847,80027.0% • Statistics from the Census & Statistics department (2006)

Figures from the Hong Kong EMB, reveal that the number of habitual truancy and non-attendance 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 • Increasethe 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 withinadolescents’ 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: • 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

Suggested Problem Solving Method: 2. Cultivate Caring School EnvironmentDEET (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.”

Cultivate Caring School Environment • Don’t try to alienate the students • Set up Tutoring Team assist students with learning difficulties or low study motivation • Dig out students’ interest, offer opportunities to give positive reinforcement • Train up peer mentors – focus friendship and peers • Teachers and prefects reach out to lonely students • 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

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