Anxious School Refusers and Symptoms of PTSD in Abused Children

Abstract

School refusal was assessed in 221 abused children based on parent responses to the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents—Revised (DICA-R). Twenty Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) items were selected based on correspondence with school refusal specifically and with symptoms identified in the literature. These items were subjected to principal components analysis, yielding a two-factor solution accounting for 40.1% of the variance. The factors, Anxious Symptoms and Misbehavior Problems, were elevated for school refusers in contrast to nonrefusers. A group of Anxious Refusers scored higher on parent-reported symptoms of PTSD. The utility of the CBCL items for screening and the elevated PTSD scores for Anxious Refusers are discussed in the context of working with children identified as victims of abuse.

Keywords:

• school refusal
• PTSD
• abuse
• Separation Anxiety Disorder

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by grant number 5-RO1-MH4878-04 from the National Institute of Mental Health to Roscoe A. Dykman, PhD.