Influence of school refusal behaviour on high anxiety of school punishment in primary education

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the predictive power of school refusal on high levels of anxiety about school punishment (ASP). In order to do this, a study was conducted on a sample of 1003 school children from 8 to 12 years of age Primary Education. The measurement tools used were the School Anxiety Inventory for Primary Education (SIPE) and the School Refusal Assessment Scale for Children-Revised (SRAS-R-C). The results of the logistic regression analysis showed that school refusal to avoid stimuli that cause negative emotions acted as a statistically significant predictor of ASP in the total sample, as regards gender samples (boys and girls) and in the academic courses samples (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th years of Primary Education). On the other hand, school refusal to avoid social aversion or evaluation situations and school refusal to seek significant others’ attention influenced positively on high levels of ASP in boys sample and in 4th grade of Primary Education, respectively. These results show the importance of assessing the school refusal behaviour because of the influence that it could exert on the appearance of high levels of anxiety about school punishment.