Assessment Tools for School Refusal

Comprehensive assessment of school refusal involves obtaining information from multiple sources, including self-report and clinical interviews.1 Given that children who are having difficult or are refusing to attend school may meet criteria for an Anxiety or Depressive Disorder , therefore information posted under these behavior health categories may be helpful to you.

Self-Report Measures

  • School Refusal Assessment Scale
  • Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for School Situations (SEQ-SS).
    Heyne, D., King, N., Tonge, B., Rollings, S., Pritchard, M., Young, D. & Myerson, N. (1998). A self-efficacy questionnaire for school situations: Development and psychometric evaluations. Behaviour Change, 15, 31-40. (currently not available online). 

Clinician-Administered Assessments

Even though school refusal is a not a DSM-IV diagnosis, children and adolescents with this problem often meet diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder. Therefore, conducting a diagnostic interview may be helpful for informing diagnosis.1 Several useful measures:

Other Resources

School Refusal Behavior in Youth: A Functional Approach to Assessment and Treatment
C. Kearny

School Refusal: Assessment and Treatment
N. King, T. Ollendick, B. Tonge

School Refusal in Children and Adolescents
An American Family Physician article providing a good overview of school refusal, assessment and treatment.

1Heyne, D.  (in press). School refusal. In J. E. Fisher & W. O’Donohue (Eds.). Practitioner’s guidelines for evidence based psychotherapy. New York: Kluwer.