School Distress in UK School Children: Characteristics and Consequences

Abstract

AbstractAs education becomes increasingly centralised, it is important to understand why some children and young people (CYP) in the UK have become too distressed to attend school, or manage to attend school but at a considerable cost to their mental health and wellbeing. Using a case-control, concurrent embedded mixed-method research design, 1121 parents of CYP completed a bespoke online questionnaire. This included 947 parents of CYP who are currently (n=738) or have previously (n=209) struggled to attend school, 149 parents of age-matched control CYP, and parents of 25 CYP who have never attended school. Within this work we use the term School Distress (SD) to describe the experiences of CYP who face difficulty attending school. This is because school attendance was associated with emotional distress for the majority of CYP in our sample who either currently or previously struggled to attend school (94.3%), with often harrowing accounts of distress provided by parents. Findings revealed that age of onset of SD was early (mean age 7.9 years), with a mean duration of 4 years. SD was associated with poor school attendance, poor academic attainment, significant anxiety symptomatology, and extreme demand avoidant behaviour. Neurodivergent CYP (92.1%) and, in particular, autistic CYP (83.4%) were significantly over-represented amongst CYP with SD. Co-occurring multi-modal sensory processing difficulties, ADHD, and anxiety were common. Mental health difficulties in the absence of a neurodivergent profile were relatively rare (6.17%). Hence, whilst not a story of exclusivity relating solely to autism, SD is a story of complexity. Moreover, despite clear evidence that SD creates a context that engenders negative educational and mental health outcomes, parental reports revealed a dearth of support for these CYP, and most parents of CYP currently experiencing SD (85.6%) were not confident, or no longer believed, school to be the suitable and proper place for their child to be educated. Similarly, whilst 97% of the CYP described here once attended a mainstream school setting, only 24.3% of CYP with historical SD were currently educated in a mainstream classroom, with the majority now home-educated.