Award Date
12-2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Psychology
Department
Psychology
First Committee Member
Christopher Kearney, Chair
Second Committee Member
Michelle Carro
Third Committee Member
Jennifer Rennels
Graduate Faculty Representative
Lori Olafson
Number of Pages
136
Abstract
The current study examined the relationship between the functions of school refusal behavior and family environment characteristics in a community sample of youth. The primary aim was to determine the family environments most strongly associated with each function of school refusal behavior in an ethnically diverse, community-based sample of youths referred to the legal process for absenteeism. Hypotheses for the current study were based on the premise that family environment characteristics of the community sample of youths with problematic absenteeism would generally resemble those identified in previous clinical samples. The first hypothesis was that youth who refuse school primarily to avoid stimuli that provoke negative affectivity would exhibit a healthy family dynamic. The second hypothesis was that youth who refuse school primarily to escape social or evaluative situations would exhibit an isolated family dynamic. The third hypothesis was that youth who refuse school primarily to pursue attention from significant others would exhibit an enmeshed family dynamic. The fourth hypothesis was that youth who refuse school primarily to pursue tangible reinforcement outside of school would exhibit a conflictive and detached family dynamic.
The sample was recruited from two truancy settings and was composed of 215 middle and high school youth aged 11-17 years and their parent or guardian. Overall families scored significantly lower than the norm on the Cohesion, Independence, Active-Recreational Orientation, and Intellectual-Cultural Orientation Family Environment Scale subscales. Families also scored lower than the norm on the Expressiveness subscale and higher than the norm on the Conflict subscale, but these findings were not robust. Families of function one and function four youth were associated with low levels of cohesion and high levels of conflict. There were no significant associations between function two and function three youth and specific family characteristics. Varying results were also found for English-speaking and Spanish-speaking families. These results provide important clinical implications regarding assessment and treatment of school refusing youth in community settings.
Keywords
Education; Families; Family assessment; Family environment; Psychology; School absenteeism; School attendance; School refusal
Disciplines
Child Psychology | Educational Psychology | Family, Life Course, and Society | School Psychology
File Format
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Schafer, Rachel Marie, "The relationship between the functions of school refusal behavior and family environment" (2011). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 1401.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/3310256
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Included in
Child Psychology Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, School Psychology Commons