School Refusal in Adolescence: Personality Traits and Their Influence on Treatment Outcome

There has been little attention to personality in research on school refusal (SR). This study examined traits among 41 adolescents receiving cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) during participation a School Refusal Program. Traits were via clinical scales and 2-point code types derived from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Adolescent. The influence of treatment outcome was at post-treatment 1-year follow-up. At pretreatment, eight 10 disproportionately skewed toward “high very high” range relative norm group. Social introversion depressive symptomatology significantly increased group, nearly one-half characterized by type 2-3/3-2 (depression/hysteria) or 2-0/0-2 (depression/social introversion). Adolescents almost twice as likely (odds ratio = 1.78) be responders post-treatment. no relation between small sample size limits generalization study’s findings. If results are replicated, may provide useful indications for personalizing when employing interventions recommended CBT manuals SR.