An exploration into the use of social media technology in adolescents who school refuse.

Williams, Jemma 2019. An exploration into the use of social media technology in adolescents who school refuse. DEdPsy Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

Preview	PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (4MB) | Preview
	PDF (Cardiff University Electronic Publication Form) - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only Download (104kB)

Abstract

Despite school refusal being a widely researched area; outcomes for young people affected by school refusal remain poor and the voice of the child continues to remain absent from the evidence base (Baker & Bishop, 2015). Due to the research on school refusal focusing mainly on treatment (Elliot & Place, 2019), there is little information which explores the impact of school refusal behaviour. Research often fails to address the externalised social factors which may be reinforcing the school refusal behaviour. Social Media Technology (SMT) now plays a large part of life, with the majority of people using some form of SMT (Battisby, 2018). It is still unclear what effect this is having on people’s mental health with conflicting research often found (Twenge et al, 2018; Heffer et al, 2019). Research often discovers SMT links with mental health (Twenge et al, 2018) and socialising (Beyens et al, 2016). These links are also, often, observed within the Anxiety Based School Refusal (ABSR) literature (Csoti, 2003; Havik et al, 2015), one might assume that SMT can impact on the ABSR experience; there is currently no research which explores this further. This research aimed to provide an insight into the experience of Anxiety Based School Refusal (ABSR) for the young people and how those involved viewed SMT during this time. Four participants were interviewed in total via a semi-structured interview process; all pupil participants attended an anxious and phobic specialist school provision for those who were not attending mainstream education. Data was analysed using the process of Interpretative Phonological Analysis (Smith, Flower and Larkin, 2009), four super-ordinate themes were identified: the experience of school; the self as a person; social connection and impacts of SMT use. Implications for educational psychologists and professionals are considered alongside possible future directions for further study.

Item Type:	Thesis (DEdPsy)
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	9 October 2019
Last Modified:	09 Oct 2019 15:42
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/125918

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item