Socially prescribed perfectionism as a predictor of high school refusal

Abstract

The growing interest in studying the behaviour of school refusal is due to the negative consequences associated with this problem. To know what kind of psychoeducational variables predict this negative behaviour is an interest to the scientific community at the present. The aim of this research was to analyse the predictive ability of Socially Prescribed Perfectionism on high scores in school refusal. In this study 537 Spanish students participated between 8 and 12 years. The instruments used were the School Refusal Assessment Scale Revised for Children (SRAS-R-C), to measure the four factors that justify the school refusal behaviour (I. Avoid Negative Affectivity; Escape II. Social Aversion or Evaluation; III Search for Significant Attention of Others; IV. Search Tangible Reinforcements Outside School) and the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS), to assess the subscale of Socially Prescribed Perfectionism. From the results found, it is confirmed that the subscale of perfectionism evaluated acts as a positive predictor of high scores in school refusal for factors II and III of the SRAS-R-C. These results should be valued by school psychologists when they assess school refusal behaviour and it is necessary to propose strategies for prevention and intervention.

Keywords

• rechazo escolar
• perfeccionismo socialmente prescrito
• regresión logística
• educación primaria