ABSTRACT
This chapter will review the ever-expanding literature on the behavioural treatment of school phobia. The majority of evidence in support of the use of behavioural approaches has stemmed from single case studies. A review by Berecz (1968) found that up until then behavioural studies were over-simplistic ‘one-shot attempts to prove the effectiveness of certain techniques’. Early studies inspired by the work of Wolpe (1954, 1958) and Lazarus (1960) were mainly concerned with the application of systematic desensitisation procedures to young children. Since then a wide range of techniques arising out of both classical and operant paradigms have been developed and applied to both young children and adolescents.
