Assessment of School Phobia Among Elementary Students in Nineveh Governorate

School phobia is one of the most common symptoms among children in the elementary stage, which affects their psychological, social and scientific formation, as the child expresses his fear of coming to this strange environment and reflects this in a set of psychological and physical symptoms. A descriptive study design carried out to assess school phobia among elementary school students in Nineveh Governorate during the period from September 1, 2019 to August 10, 2020. The sample of the study consisted of (806) elementary school pupils selected randomly from many elementary schools from inside and outside Mosul city which selected by stratified method. Data were gathered by a structured questionnaire based on previous studies and sources related to the research topic. It composed of two main parts; Demographic data and expected reasons or causes behind the phenomenon of the study. Its validity was checked through the opinions of (16) experts, and its reliability was measured by applying it to (50) students who were excluded from the main sample of the research, its value was (0.71). Data were collected through personal interview with each pupil in order to address the causes of the fear from the school, while the pupils’ commitment to the school and absenteeism from it was checked by reviewing each pupil’s file in the school. The interview was carried out by the researcher himself or by one of the teams of teachers assisting the researcher after their approval and engagement if the study. The study found a positive relationship between fear of school and fear from colleagues. The study concluded that there are large numbers of pupils in the schools, also in comparing with the numbers of teachers. High rate of absenteeism from the school 1 Msc Student, Mosul Nursing College, University of Mosul 2 Assistant Professor, Technical Institute of Mosul, Northern Technical University Article information Article history: Received August 26, 2020 Accepted September 6, 2020 Available online October 13, 2020 Mosul Journal of Nursing, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2020 ( 165-167 ) 166 among females. The study recommends building more schools in the governorate, establishing an educational and psychological counselling programs to deal with the phenomenon of fear, refusal and truancy from the school. Also, the school administrations, personnel and teachers should create an appropriate school atmosphere based on dealing with pupils equally without differences, caring for them and follow up their academic levels, as well as working to control the school's surroundings and prevent any transgression and bullying among pupils and create the spirit of intimacy, love and cooperation among them.


Introduction
One of the most common constructs that educational and mental health professionals have studied over the past century is the behavior of school refusal, or a child's rejection of motivations to go to school and / or the difficulties of staying in classes for an entire day. School rejection behaviors is an umbrella term that covers many behaviors accompanied with problematic absenteeism, and includes school phobia, truancy, and anxiety-based school refusal that is reflected in a range of psycho-physiological, cognitive, and motor reactions that expressed by individuals in the school and have been identified as ambiguous, threatening, and / or dangerous. More specifically, it includes missing long periods of school time, skipping lessons or periods of the school day, constantly late to attend school, exhibit bad behaviors at morning trying to miss school, display extreme behaviors, and insistently request others to take them out of school. (García-Fernández and Martínez-Monteagudo, 2014, Kearney, 2008, and Kearney, 2003. School refusal behaviors is common, it affects "5-28%" of youth at any given time, and is generally observed equally among boys and girls. They are heterogeneous and complex phenomenon consisting of many internal and external symptoms. In addition, severe short and long-term consequences of prolonged absenteeism from school have been found. Behaviors are often seen as an underlying problem or a problem embedded in a group of problems. Therefore, its accurate assessment, classification, and treatment is of high importance for clinicians. (Kearney, 2001). The common used definition of school refusal behaviors includes (a) reluctance or refusal to go to school, which often leads to prolonged absenteeism, (b) staying home during the school hours with parents' knowledge rather than hiding the problem from parents, (c) experiencing emotional distress while going to school (for example, physical complaints, unhappiness, and anxiety), (d) the absence of antisocial behaviors, and (e) parents' efforts to ensure that their children attend school. These criteria help differentiate between school refusal and school truancy behaviors (based on the criteria B, C, and D, and school withdrawal (based on criterion E). The school rejection rate in the general population ranged between "1% to 2%", while it ranged "5% to 15%" in youth samples referenced in the clinic (Heyne, 2006;Egger and Angold, 2003). School phobia is described simply as the fear and anxiety associated behaviors that accompanied with going to school (Rettig and Crawford, 2000).
If they left untreated, it can lead to development of life-long panic disorder, social phobia, and mental conditions (Fremont, 2003).
The importance of this study stems from a group of matters and has many obvious and hidden effects, because, in the event of dropping out large number of children from the school, this will expose them to many risks and perhaps social and behavioural deviations, from another hand, it will increase the burden on their families financially, socially, behaviourally and morally, whereas, the very The study aims to assess the different factors that can play an important role among elementary pupils and make them more prone to suffer from school phobia, refusal and truancy.   Table (2) presents that the students' age was fluctuated between (9 -14 years), with a mean and standard deviation of (11.28 ± 1.239

Method
year). The number of pupils in the schools was ranged between (150 -1300 pupils) with a mean of (430 pupils) and a mode of (400 pupils). The number of teachers in the schools was ranged between (4 -26 teachers) with a mean of (ten teachers) and a mode of (nine teachers). The number of pupils in the class was ranged between (18 -78 pupils) with a mean of (45 pupils) and a mode of (45 pupils).

Discussion
One of the big serious emotional problems that face pupils, families and school personnel is school attendance (Fear, refusal or truancy), it has adverse short and long term consequences (Fremont, 2003 Thambirajah and colleagues (2008) and Kearney (2008) agreed upon that (20%) of unexecuted school non-attendance-which was due to school refusal and truancy-were relatively common, whereas truancy and delinquent juvenile behavior in addition to juvenile crime were linked. Mihalas (2014) pointed out that school refusal affected ( (2011) indicated that school refusal accounted (1%) of all school absenteeism. Zahari and Low (2013) referred that truancy cases accounted (17343) cases between (2006)   Teachers' classroom management involving enhancing social interactions among pupils is crucial to prevent bullying, prevent unpleasant, threatening experiences with peers and build supportive relationships among pupils which protect from stress and adverse emotions (Murberg and Bru, 2009), frustration and helplessness (Sorrenti et, al., 2015), motivate school commitment and prevent school refusal behaviors (Havik et. al., 2015;Pianta et, al., 2012;Luckner and Pianta, 2011;Ertesvåg, 2009;Roland and Galloway, 2002). Cheon and Reeve (2015) referred that teachers' manipulation of pupils is vital to ensure commitment with their directives. Niemiec and Ryan (2009) indicated that hindrance the satisfaction of pupils' basic psychological needs in the school, had negative effects in the school involvement (increasing absenteeism) and reducing academic performance, this finding was consistent with previous studies (Filippello et, al., 2019;Molinari and Mameli, 2018;Malu andReddy, 2016, andNiemiec andRyan, 2009). From another side, when the teacher acts a control behavior (as, exhibiting disapproval, induction of guilt, ignoring pupils due to their low academic performance), the students may experience a sense of poor selfimposed control, feel excluded, doubt their ability, experience shame, anxiety, and guilt (Filippello et, al., 2019, andSoenens et al., 2012). Consequently, pupils seek such school refusal behaviors to avoid the school-related distress, be away from the adverse social situations, or seek satisfaction outside the school Spear, 2014, andKearney, 2008).
It was noticed from figure (2)  bullying, shy and socially withdrawn (Trude et, al., 2015, andEgger et, al. 2003), victimization by other peers (Gastic, 2008, Reid, 2005, and Malcolm et, al., 2003, feeling left out by peers at school and unpopularity among peers at school, feeling lonely, and insecure and lack friends (Scholte andVan Aken 2006, andArnett 2003). level of the pupil, the difficult life conditions many pupils exposed to, all those can be forced the pupils in such a way to resort to crooked methods in the examination such as cheating, as well as to some unacceptable behavior from some teachers, all of that reduce the fear from examination among pupils.

Conclusions:
1. There are large numbers of pupils in the schools, also in comparing with the numbers of teachers.
2. High rate of absenteeism from the school among females.

presence of positive association between
Fear, refusal and truancy from the school with Fear from peers or colleagues.
4. Presence of negative association between fear, refusal and truancy from the school with Fear from the teacher (P. ≤ 0.05), and Fear from examinations.
Establishing an educational and psychological counselling programs to deal with the phenomenon of fear, refusal and truancy from the school.
2. Importance of building more schools in the governorate in order to reduce the momentum for preparing students in schools.
3. Emphasizing the need to increase appointments of teachers in schools.

Providing entertainment means in schools in
order to urge students to be more commitment to the school and not to evade school. 7. In-depth researches related to the fear, refusal and truancy from the school must be carried out.