Chronic absenteeism can start in a child’s first few years of school, and new German research suggests cognitive behavioral therapy for young children can help reduce it.
In a study published in the October issue of the German journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, researchers recruited 112 kindergartners from a local mental health clinic; the children had a variety of anxiety and depression issues, but all displayed “school avoidance” and had little or no attendance.
The children were randomly assigned to a control group or to participate in cognitive behavior therapy, in which students talk through how they will respond to future problems, coupled with family and school-based counseling. When researchers followed up six months later, students in both treatment groups were attending school 60 percent of the time.
