The Japanese Association of School Health

Practical Report

ISSN ONLINE : 1880-2400

[School Health Vol.14, 1-11, 2018]

Developmental Trial of a Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program for Parents of Junior High Students Exhibiting School Refusal: Evidence Based on a Small Sample from a Metropolitan Area in Japan

Noriko　Minamitani* and Yuki　Mastumoto**

  • *Research Center for Child Mental Development, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University,
  • nminami@chiba-u.jp
  • **School of Human Life Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University

Received August 17, 2016 ; Accepted September 29, 2017

Keywords:
Cognitive behavioral therapy, school refusal, parent support program, stress management, Japan

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Abstracts

Objective: School refusal among students may cause parents to lose confidence in their ability to manage
children’s non-attendance, which can in turn lead to their inability to facilitate the children’s return to
school. Researchers have considered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a viable means of boosting the
self-efficacy of parents of children with various problems. Nevertheless, there has been little attention to
parent’s mental health condition in this population. We developed and evaluated a parent support program
to promote the mental health of parents of students with chronic absenteeism through CBT. Specifically,
by improving stress management and cognitive reframing skills, it was expected to improve parental
psychological well-being and their quality of life.

Methods: Using a non-randomized (i.e., single-arm) trial design, we recruited 20 parents from 18 families
and divided them into groups of 4-6 members for the CBT program, which comprised 6 weekly sessions
over about 3 months between October 2013 and November 2014. Treatment results were evaluated using
self-reported questionnaires before and after the program (Time 1 and 2), and in a three-month follow-up
period (Time 3). Parents were asked to report their mental health condition such as depression, anxiety and
stress (DASS-21), coping style (The Ways of Coping Checklist), and quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) .
In addition, parents rated their satisfactory with the program contents and services.

Results: Depression and harmful self-blame significantly decreased, and positive cognitive reframing
significantly increased. Furthermore, both the physical and psychological domains of quality of life
improved.

Conclusions: The results indicated that the CBT parent support program was effective in alleviating
parents’ mental health problems and improving their quality of life.

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