Association of School Engagement, Academic Difficulties and School Avoidance with Psychological Difficulties Among Adole
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Association of School Engagement, Academic Difficulties and School Avoidance with Psychological Difficulties Among Adolescents Admitted to a Psychiatric Inpatient Unit Sonya Ogilvie1 · Sarah Head1 · Shrenik Parekh2 · John Heintzman2 · Michèle Preyde1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Mental illness is a pressing public health concern, particularly when the onset is during childhood or adolescence. Many youth admitted to hospital-based psychiatric care experience school-related difficulties. The purpose of this report was to explore the associations of academic difficulties, school avoidance and school engagement to total psychological difficulties and emotional problems. Youth completed surveys that included standardized measures of school-related factors and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire while in hospital. Psychiatrists provided the primary diagnosis and diagnosis most responsible for the current admission. In total, 161 patients participated in this study (mean age 15 years, SD 1.4; 75% female). All three school-related variables were significantly associated with emotional problems; however, only school avoidance and academic difficulties were associated with total difficulties. School-related concerns were significantly associated with the severity of mental health symptoms. Patients may benefit from attention to school-related difficulties before discharge from psychiatric care that continues beyond school reintegration. Keywords Psychiatric illness · School avoidance · Academic difficulty · School engagement Approximately 20% of children and youth are living with one or more mental health disorders and 14% have symptoms indicating significant impairment and distress at school, home or the community (Angold & Costello, 1995; Chun, Mace, & Katz, 2016; Merikangas et al., 2010; Waddell, McEwan, Shephard, Offord, & Hua, 2005). About half of psychiatric illnesses are present by 14 years of age, and 75% have an onset by 24 years; therefore, addressing mental health problems during childhood and adolescence may be critical for successful transition to adulthood (Kessler et al., 2005). Psychiatric disorders during childhood and adolescence interfere with development and impair functioning in several domains including the school and home, and can lead to poor educational and unemployment outcomes (Esch et al., 2014; Fergusson & Woodward, 2002; Hale, Bevilacqua, & Viner, 2015; Kessler, Foster, Saunders, & Stang, * Michèle Preyde [email protected] 1
University of Guelph, 133b MINS BLDG, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, Canada
2
1995; McLeod, Uemura, & Rohrman, 2012; Veldman, Reijneveld, Ortiz, Verhulst, & Bültmann, 2015), decreased family income (Offord & Lipman, 1996), welfare receipt and homelessness (Forchuk, Russell, Kingston-MacClure, Turner, & Dill, 2011; Hale et al., 2015), and other mental health difficulties such as substance use (Maughan & Rutter, 2001; Weissman et al., 1999). Moreover, the number of visits to m
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