School avoidance behavior can be either proactive or reactive. Reactive avoidance is a response to threats to a student's sense of self-determination, competence, or relatedness at school. Proactive avoidance occurs when other activities outside of school better fulfill the student's psychological needs. Interventions should involve assessing the motivation for avoidance, making changes to address the underlying causes, and establishing alternative ways for the student to feel motivated during the crucial transition period back to school. The goal is to enhance intrinsic motivation by reducing threats and establishing a welcoming environment with accommodations and advocacy.

1. School Avoidance Behavior: Motivational Bases and Implications for Intervention
Taylor & Adelman et al.
Intrinsic View of Motivation
-3 fundamental psychological needs motivating human activity (lead to seeking and
conquering challenges to develop internal structures that guide action)
1. Self-determination
2. Competence
3. Relatedness
-Negative feedback and repeated failure is linked to circumstances that are perceived as
controlling or pressuring an individual to act a certain way can threaten self-
determination.
Reactive and Proactive Avoidance
-School avoidance behavior can be understood in terms of students’ attempts to act in
ways that make them feel in control, competent, and connected to others that are
important to them.
-After time, reactive behavior that is used as an immediate defense mechanism to an
aversive situation becomes the go-to pattern of coping.
Differentiating School Avoiders
-There are 5 types of school avoiders (1 proactive, 4 reactive) and while each are listed
separately, these behaviors are not mutually exclusive.
1. Proactive attraction to alternatives to school. Attraction to these circumstances
can produce feelings of relatedness, competence, or control over one’s life that
are much greater than those experienced at school.
a. Desire to stay at home with family
b. Desire to hang out with peers is especially strong throughout adolescence
c. Becoming hooked on TV programs or other favorite activities
2. Reactive avoidance of experiences at school that lead to feelings of
incompetence or lack of relatedness (including lack of safety.)
a. Expectation to encounter failure/ punishment in their efforts to meet
academic/ social standards (perception of school as threatening place)
i. Feelings of embarrassment, being different, feeling left out, being
abused
b. Student has been singled out by a bully.
c. Student has moved to a new school and does not feel accepted
3. Reactive avoidance to control by others at school. A psychological reaction that
causes a person to want to restore one’s feelings of self-determination because
of others exerting inappropriate amounts of control.

2. a. Power struggle between teacher/ student or parent/ child.
i. Teacher tightens limits and punishments of the individual which
causes the individual to become committed to showing that s/he
cannot be controlled (adopting the idea of refusing to go to school)
ii. Parent tightens limits and punishments of child and threatens to
take away privileges causing the same reaction of the child.
(everything from waking the child up to getting dressed to getting
through the classroom door becomes a struggle)
4. Reactive avoidance in response to overwhelming anxiety/ fear. (though they
represent a minority of school avoiders, “phobic” is an appropriate term to use
here)
a. Reaction to expectations of failure, incompetence, lack of control, loss of
relatedness
b. Though in these cases the students’ assessment of objective reality
doesn’t match high degree of anxiety and fear
c. Students report pervasive symptoms including sleeping problems, anxiety
produced vomiting, uncontrollable crying, strong fears and phobic
behaviors. These symptoms and fears often interfere with school and life,
and often require major therapeutic intervention.
5. Needs related to family members and events.
a. Babysit younger siblings at home.
b. Desire to be with ailing or lonely parents or grandparents.
c. Crises in the home (death, divorce, serious illness)
d. Feeling of being unable to beat the pressure of crises at home and
pressure of school
Implications for Intervention
-Four facets of working with school avoidance cases: Assessment, Consultation with
parents, Consultation with teachers, Counseling/ psychotherapy with students and
families.
 Assessment questions including perspectives of teachers, parents, and the
student to identify the underlying motivation for avoiding school.
o Is the school avoidance reactive or proactive?
o If it is reactive, is it a reaction to threats to self-determination,
competence, or relatedness?
o If it is proactive, are there other interests that might successfully compete
with the satisfaction derived from the avoidant behavior?
 Corrective Interventions
o Changes may include: identifying activity options to attract a proactive
school avoider, eliminating situations leading to reactive avoidance, and
establishing alternative ways for a student to cope with circumstances
that cannot be changed. (this does not replace a focus on skill
development and remediation, it places it in a motivational context in
order to maximize skill development.
o Focus for reactive school avoidance includes reducing reactance and
enhancing positive motivation for attending school
 Eliminating threats

3.  Establishing activities which emphasize intrinsic motivation in the
student
 If avoidance is phobic, ongoing family counseling is advised, as is
extensive school consultation in pursuit of extended support and
accommodation to students’ needs.
o Focus for proactive avoidance includes exploring and agreeing upon an
intrinsically motivating activity to replace the student’s current school
program.
 Should be able to produce greater feelings of self-determination,
competence, and relatedness
 Should be nonthreatening and interesting (students seem to be
most responsive to content that emphasized their contemporary
culture, deemphasize formal schooling, and opportunities to
assume positive role status)
Starting or Returning: the Crucial Transition Phase
-It is crucial that when the avoider is beginning to reenter school, it is a positive
experience.
-There are two system characteristics that are commonly found and work against
successful reentry into school: lack of a receptive atmosphere, and lack of special
accommodation. (In some cases it is necessary to plan only a partial school day
schedule for the student where a full day schedule would be counterproductive to
enhancing the intrinsic motivation to go to school)
 In order to counter negative experiences upon reentry into school:
o Arrange for one or more on-site advocates who increase the likelihood of
a welcoming atmosphere by guiding the student through the transition.
 Should be a member of school staff and can include a peer
counselor if so desired.
o While special accommodations are often not made because they are
seen as unfair to the rest of the class, not including them can be
detrimental to the transition phase of the avoidant student.
 Teachers must offer nonthreatening program alternatives that
interest the student.
 Some rules and standards must be redefined so that certain
deviant behaviors are tolerated and not defined as misbehavior.
Concluding Comments
 Options
 Provide a range of potentially valued and feasible options for the student to
choose from to allow the intervener to identify activities that are a good match
with the student’s current intrinsic motivations.
 In extreme cases it may be: necessary to temporarily deemphasize the standard
curriculum and pursue only the activities which the student makes a personal

4. commitment and it may be necessary to temporarily accommodate a wider range
of deviant behavior from the student than is usually tolerated.
 Student Decision Making
 It is important that the student feels apart of the decision making process
regarding their reentry into school for two reasons: people who are not included
in decision making often have little commitment to what is decided, and people
who perceive themselves as being coerced to do something they don’t want to
do often react by avoiding in an effort to again regain their sense of self-
determination.
 Continuous Information on Functioning
 Should actively try to avoid overemphasizing surveillance and over relying on
extrinsics in countering avoidance behavior.
 Provide feedback on progress by highlighting success in terms of attending
school and effectiveness in making good decisions.
 There is a need for changes in general social and school programs. The aims of
such are to
 Prevent and overcome negative attitudes toward school and learning
 Enhance motivational readiness for learning and overcoming problems
that arise
 Expand and maintain intrinsic motivation for learning and problem solving.