Understanding school refusal behavior using SRAS‐R and its application to behavioral consultation techniques

Unauthorised student absences from school occur around the world. Given the importance of school, it's crucial to understand why this occurs and how the situation might be improved. Existing measures include psycho-educational, psycho-analytic and behavioral approaches but the issue is growing and more needs to be done to better understand non-attendance. If understanding can be improved, more effective measures can be put in place to encourage children to attend their classes. Associate Professor Yoshinori Yano leads a team based within the Department of Early Childhood Education at Sakushin Gakuin University Women’s College in Japan applying a variety of techniques and approaches to better understanding school refusal behavior. Yano is particularly interested in special needs education and applied behavior analysis. He is applying the concept of applied behavior analysis to his work to understand the actions of people and visualise achievement status. He is looking at truant behavior from the perspectives of special support education and student guidance. Yano is using the School Refusal Assessment Scale (SRAS-R) to understand school absences. There are two types of the scale: one for professional grading and one for parental grading. The four functions of the SRAS-R are: avoidance of unpleasant stimuli related to school; avoidance of evaluation and social situations (ESE); attention-seeking behavior of others; and having fun outside of school. Studies have been conducted using the Japanese version of SRAS‐R, the SRAS‐R‐J, but none in clinical settings outside of school.