Research Proposal

Ruby Turner
Intern mentor
2016
Title: I don't want to go... Would you?

Project Overview/objectives
Adolescents tend not to talk openly about the problems they face in school. The research I am
proposing is to find a way for students that suffer from school refusal can talk to they're counselors
and together come up with a way to help them stay in school. I have been talking tkt my mentor about
her case studies with adolescents to see how the react to treatments. I have also been researching
online different stories about families and how they've grown through they're trails. I have researched
lot about homeschooling to also see why it is a resource that parents use. My ultimate product is to
create a presentation for school counselors and health professional to help them get a better
understanding of what they can do to help students that suffer from anxiety. I plan on collaborating
with my mentor to make sure I give the right information to counselors and the students.

Background and History of the Issue:

School refusal has been a problem know for stressing children, families, and school staff.
School refusal is often associated with Comorbid psychiatric disorders like anxiety, depression,
COD, etc. In 1941 fear of going to school was first termed school phobia. The term school refusal
was used in Great Britain to define the similar problems of school phobia but with emotional
distresses. School refusal is common to children of all ages but commonly found in five, six, 10 and
11 year Olds. There has been no socioeconomic difference noted.
It has been clinically shown that school refusal symptoms are usually gradual.
Symptoms have been known to appear after holidays or illness. Some children leave home in this
morning and develop physical difficulty throughout the day causes them to stay home. Some children
just refuse from fhs start to go to school. Studies show the longer a child's stays home this hard it will
be to get them readjusted to school. According to some psychologist school refusal should be
considered a heterogeneous. School avoidance depends on the child, because some kids will try and
avoid fear provoking environments, escapes from aversive social situations, separation anxiety, or
attention seeking behavior.

Problem Statement and Rationale:

The problem that I've been presently researching is school refusal in adolescent. This topic is
key to making sure that not only public but private school know and are trained in ways to make the
school environment better. The research that I'm doing can help find the key reason why school refusal
exist. I want to find a way to decrease it even more than 1 to 5 percent of students. That's a larger
population than it seems and it has a large impact on the lives of others. This would be beneficial to
the school systems because IT would allow them to reach even more students and it would help them
to see what could improve to help.

Research Methodology:
Research Question and Hypothesis: THIS PART (and only this part) can be bulleted!
How does anxiety in children lead to school refusal?
 What are psychological and learning risk factors in a child that leads to school refusal?
Emotional and learning disorders influence some children to follow school refusal.

Research Design:
I have so far been conducting qualitative research because I haven't focused on going in order.
I haven't planned on going in order because the resources don't fall in order.
I'm planning on creating a survey to send to the school counseling staff of my previous schools. So far
this year I have been able to use the knowledge that I've learned to help create products that will help
my mentor with her clients. I intend to use my knowledge use I get into my work field of elementary
school counseling. I plan to use my mentor and the people I was able to interview as my primary
resources. I has also been using my documents that I've found online to help me learn about the
different disorders and this treatments. I've also learned about different therapies that can be used.

Operational Definitions
Home schooled: the education of children at home by their parents.
School refusal is the refusal to attend school due to emotional distress.
School anxiety phobia is a complex syndrome that can be influenced by the child's temperament , the
situation at school, and the family situation
Adolescents: the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a
child into an adult

Logistical Considerations:
I will need to talk to someone in the Howard county system so that I can get the
presentation approved. I will need a PowerPoint , handouts, and most of all people who are
willing to participate. I don't see large cost coming out as long as the flyers are made at home. I
will need to find a way to publish this presentation to all the schools. I also need to see what
age range has the largest amount of school refusal or homeschooled children.

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