Social Factors Associated with School Phobia in Elementary School Students

The present study was carried out to identify and analyze the social factors affecting school phobia in children in three domains of personal characteristics, parental expectations for children's educational attainment, and human and physical factors related to schools. The research method was survey and the statistical population of the study was comprised of 545 parents of Tehrani elementary school students in grades one to three. The instrument included a questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha of 0.85 which showed the internal consistency of the measure. Based on the results, three factors, i.e., parental expectations for children's educational attainment, school personnel’s perception of students, and children’s experience of school environment are among the important factors associated with school phobia. More specifically, 20.2% of variance in school phobia variable is explained by the aforementioned factors. The most significant factors contributing to school phobia are parental expectations for children's educational attainment (18%), school personnel’s perception of students (1.3%), and children’s experience of school environment (0.9%), respectively.