The influence of a return to school on the long-term adjustment of school refusers.

There is currently a strong emphasis on an early return to school in the management of school refusers . However, many of the studies in this area show a certain similarity in that the efficacy of treatment is measured by the disappearance of school avoidance rather than the long-term adjustment of the child. Very few studies have followed the school refuser into adulthood and even fewer have looked at the prognostic implications of a return to school. This paper reports a study of 34 young people all of whom had been admitted to an in-patient adolescent unit because of school refusal. Half had returned to school and the other half had never done so. The influence of this return on their emotional and social adjustment in young adulthood was assessed.