OKUL REDDİNDE BİLİŞSEL DAVRANIŞÇI TERAPİNİN KULLANIMI: İLKOKUL VE ORTAOKUL OLGU

The concept of school refusal is used for students that refuse to attend school or have difficulty in participating in the day long school activities. Absenteeism other than familial accounts or chronic illnesses is considered as school refusal. School refusal not only results in falling behind school subjects, consequently a decline in academic success, but also being out of school a student would be more at risk for delinquency and other safety related conditions. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral counseling on two school refusal cases. The indicators of effectiveness were determined as decrease in absenteeism rates, decrease in exhibition of problem behaviors at home or in school, improvement in academic success. The counseling process encompassed helping the students define their negative automatic thoughts, discover related cognitive distortions and generate positive alternative thoughts. The counselors met with the cases for eight sessions of about 40 minutes. Interviews with the teachers and parents conducted at the end of the intervention process revealed that absenteeism rates (from 10 days of absence in 2 months from 3 days of absence), and exhibition of problematic behaviors because of the unwillingness of going to school decreased. These case study results point out that cognitive behavioral counseling can be an effective way of intervention for school refusal both for primary and secondary school students.