SYNDROME OF SCHOOL REFUSAL: NORM OR PATHOLOGY? CROSS-CULTURAL ANALITICAL REVIEW

Abstract

The problem of avoiding school by children is one of the most actual in modern psychological and pedagogical science. Thus refusal of school is not a specific problem forRussia. Experts in Western and Eastern Europe, in theUSAandJapanrecognize the menacing scales which this phenomenon got practically in all industrially developed countries. Particularities of this phenomenon are defined by various factors, including genetic heredity, brain dysfunction, family psychopathology, specific features and pathology of character. In this context the phenomenon of school nonattendance is an especially useful model for studying children’s broken psychological development. Social and cultural factors also substantially influence the prevalence and form of this phenomenon. Its studying from the social and economic and cultural points of view would also provide a new understanding of disorders and their reasons, and how cultural factors influence normal and abnormal development of children. Multicultural approach to the designated problem can give additional incentives to its further studying. In the review given below we attempt to analyse psychological features and causes of failure of children to train at school inRussia, European countries, theUSAandJapan.

Keywords

• refusal of school, truancies, school phobia, uneasiness, maternal separation