Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to expand on the work of
Mitchner (1998) by gaining a better understanding of school
psychologists’ knowledge of school refusal behavior and the
interventions used to address school refusal. Participants
included 500 practicing school psychologists who were
randomly selected from the National Association of School
Psychologists membership database.
Results indicated that school psychologists maintained
a traditional, anxiety-based definition of school refusal
behavior that was derived from their professional
experience. While participants were not familiar with
Kearney and Silverman’s research in the area of school
refusal, similarities in their conceptualization of
characteristics and interventions were identified.
Implications for school psychologists’ training in this area
were discussed.
