EBSA: A Conflict in Time and Between Systems – Practitioners’ Understanding of Emotionally Based School Avoidance

In recent years, the number of pupils consistently missing school has risen sharply and is associated with lower academic achievement as well as having long-term implications for factors including employability, alcohol dependence and crime. One of the key forms of school non-attendance is often referred to as emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), although a wide variety of terminology is used by practitioners.
There has been a large amount of research conducted into EBSA, including the causes of EBSA, which are generally acknowledged as being heterogenous. Research has also been conducted into the views and experiences of a range of stakeholders, including the views of children and young people (CYP) who have been impacted, the parents of impacted CYP and the views of teachers. However, very little research has been done into the conceptualisation of the phenomena amongst multi-disciplinary practitioners who are involved in supporting CYP experiencing EBSA, despite there being a wide range of these stakeholders potentially involved on a regular basis. This study seeks to address this gap in the research.
The current research is an exploratory study which uses four focus groups to gather data from seven different practitioner groups. The data was analysed through the use of discursive psychology, with a particular focus on interpretive repertoires as per the Discursive Action Model (Edwards & Potter, 1992). Bronfenbrenner’s Ecosystemic model was also used to aid the conceptualisation of the resulting data.
The results of this study highlight the conflicts within and between the systems which surround CYP who experience EBSA and the practitioners tasked with supporting them. The results emphasise the importance of using agreed language across practitioner groups to construct the experiences of EBSA as well as the importance of multisystemic, unified responses. The implications for practitioners generally, and EPs specifically, are discussed.