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Abstract
When children with special educational needs are excluded from school, it should raise the concern that these children are not receiving adequate help and support. This systematic review aims to identify the prevalence of psychiatric disorder or impairing psychopathology among children who are excluded from school compared to children who are not excluded from school. The review follows the guidelines set out by the Centre of Research and Dissemination (Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, 2009). We used broad search terms (across 16 databases) in order to avoid missing papers, our initial screening stage involved 3712 titles and abstracts. Five studies finally met our inclusion criteria. The results from these studies suggest that the odds of children who have been excluded from school having some kind of impairing psychological or behavioural impairment is increased in comparison to children who have not been excluded (odds ratios ranging from 1.13–31.9). However, the paucity of primary research in this area, combined with methodological weaknesses in the identified studies makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions. The need for education and mental health professionals to work together to provide the appropriate support for all children at risk of exclusion is of great and immediate concern.
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Author biographies
Rebecca Whear, MSc, is a Research Fellow in Evidence Synthesis working for the South West Peninsula Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (PenCLAHRC) at the University of Exeter Medical School (UEMS). Her primary research interests are improving health services for the benefit of patients and public care organizations. She is particularly interested in child and adolescent mental health.
Ruth Marlow, DClin Psy, is a Clinical and Community Psychologist working at the University of Exeter Medical School as an Associate Research Fellow. As part of this role her research interests include the mental health needs of children, parenting, attachment and eating disorders.
Kate Boddy, MSc, is an Associate Research Fellow in the Patient and Public Involvement Team within PenCLAHRC. Her work entails involving people in research so that the people who are meant to benefit from research have a say in shaping it. She has a background in health service research and has previously worked as an information specialist on numerous systematic reviews as in this case.
Obioha C. Ukoumunne is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for the South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC) and based at the University of Exeter Medical School. His area of expertise is the design and analysis of data from cluster randomized trials. He is the statistician on three on-going trials of interventions for reducing children’s behaviour problems and a longitudinal study tracking the outcomes of children with ADHD.
Claire Parker, BSc, is a Doctoral Student at the University of Exeter Medical School in the Child Mental Health Department. Her primary research interests include children who might be ‘at risk’ or have been excluded from school and the associations with child mental health, development and well-being.
Tamsin Ford is a Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UEMS, where she leads a child mental health research group. Her primary research interests focus on interventions and service developments to improve child mental health and well-being. She is particularly interested in the interface between mental health and education.
Jo Thompson-Coon, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow in PenCLAHRC at the University of Exeter Medical School. Her primary research interests include the methodology of evidence synthesis for qualitative and quantitative research and the evaluation of complex interventions.
Ken Stein, MSc, MD, FFPH, is a Public Health Physician and Professor of Public Health at the University of Exeter Medical School. His primary interest is health technology assessment and the development of knowledge based services through collaboration between health services and academia.
