School Refusal in Students with Low Academic Performances and Specific Learning Disorder. The Role of Self-Esteem and Perceived Parental Psychological Control

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to conduct an exploratory study to investigate any differences in the risk of developing school refusal in students with low academic achievement and students with specific learning disorder (SLD), and moreover to compare both groups to students with high academic achievement. Furthermore, we want to investigate whether or not school self-esteem, interpersonal self-esteem, and psychological control are predictive of risk of developing school refusal. The sample consisted of 125 students, 66 males and 59 females, with an average age of 12.05 (SD = .85), divided into a 36 students with low academic achievement, 58 with high academic achievement, and 31 with LSD. The results show differences in the manifestations of school refusal among the three groups. Furthermore, regression analysis has shown the relevant role played by self-esteem and perceived parental psychological control in the prediction of risk of school refusal. Educational and practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic performance
• basic psychological needs
• interpersonal self-esteem
• parental psychological control
• school refusal
• school self-esteem
• school well-being
• specific learning disorder (SLD)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Specific learning disorder – SLD (DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) is a disability in some basic psychological process such as listening, thinking, reading, speaking, writing and calculating, or difficulty in spelling. SLD typically occurs in individuals of normal intelligence, although these disabilities may occur in people identified as gifted (Maughan & Carroll, 2006).