School refusal, bullying and social exclusion — branching viva

Opening

Examiner: Frame the adolescent whose attendance collapses after bullying. Why is this one problem with three drivers, not three separate problems? [1] [9]

Candidate: Because school refusal, bullying victimisation and social exclusion overlap and reinforce each other through a shared mechanism — lost school connection drives internalising distress, which deepens avoidance. The adolescent may be an anxious refuser, a cyber-victim and excluded from the peer group at the same time. I assess all three, formulate all three, and move on all three the same week. [1] [9]