Recently, there are many children who do not want to go to school in our psychiatric clinic, and Hong Hao, a sixth grader in elementary school, is one of them. At the beginning of the school year, Hong Hao would get agitated and lose his temper whenever his parents mentioned the start of the school year. When his mother got angry and criticized him, he immediately turned his head and hid in his room, and didn’t pay attention to his mother for two days. Honghao usually likes his grandmother the most, and with her guidance, he finally went to school on the first day of the school year, and has been able to adapt to school life in the past two weeks. Honghao’s behavior belongs to the “fear of the beginning of school”: he is psychologically depressed, panicked, angry for no reason, has poor concentration, memory loss, etc. He is also very nervous. In the physical manifestations of insomnia, fatigue, headache, stomachache, and so on. It is worth noting that if the fear of starting school develops to the point of refusing to go to school, it may be “school phobia”, which belongs to the category of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, and mainly manifests itself as a strong fear of school and refusal to go to school, which is common among children and adolescents. Initially, in order to avoid going to school, the child may complain of headache, abdominal pain, poor appetite, generalized weakness, etc., and then the symptoms will be reduced or disappear after achieving the goal of not going to school. When the parents strongly urge him to go to school, there are nervousness, crying, noise, anxiety, and a variety of obvious physical symptoms, such as headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fidgeting, fever and sweating. Even if these children are sent to school, they will show some obvious withdrawn behaviors in school: difficulty in concentrating in class, not daring to look at their classmates and teachers, walking with their heads bowed, not daring to talk, etc. Once school is over, they will be relieved. 2. Evaluation and diagnostic criteria of school phobia (1) It is very difficult to go to school, often taking leave or being absent, and even not going to school for a longer period of time. (2) Severe anxiety when facing the problem of going to school. This includes extreme fear of school, or a variety of physical discomforts, complaints, tantrums, and so on. (3) Unlike truancy, these children often do not want to go to school, but are unable to do so. (4) There are no obvious anti-social behaviors, such as stealing, lying, destructive behaviors and so on. 3.Why do children suffer from “school phobia”? Children who suffer from school phobia actually have deep-rooted psychological problems, which explode centrally through the trigger of the beginning of the school year. This has to do with the child’s uneasiness of leaving home, leaving parents, and facing the outside world alone. “Because of the strangeness, because of the dependence, when I was little I used to think about how far I could go when I grew up, but when I actually went to high school I became homesick again.” –Anonymous High School Student In the case of adolescent children, there is always a reason why they cannot leave home. The symptoms of a child’s refusal to go to school represent, on the one hand, his inner struggle and insecurity; on the other hand, it suggests that there is something wrong with the family system in which he lives. From the perspective of family therapy, the symptomatic behavior of an individual does not only belong to the individual, but to the whole family system he is in, especially when this family system is dysfunctional. Three stages and causes of susceptibility to school phobia: (1) 4 to 7 years of age, kindergarten and elementary school years, associated with separation anxiety. (2) 11 or 12 years old, from elementary school to secondary school stage, may be associated with anxiety about the new school environment, new interpersonal difficulties, and adjustment to academic pressures. (3) At the age of 14, when the child enters puberty, anxiety about self-image and the reactivation of conflicts resolved in early psychological development are relevant. 4, the child appeared “school phobia”, what to do? Into the school, leaving home, the essence of the child’s psychological independence, starting from kindergarten to college and society, the whole process is a growing up, with the parents gradually far from the process of leaving home. If the family has difficulty facing unresolved conflicts, the child faces great challenges and dilemmas when leaving home. This is most often the case with children who are afraid of school, bored with school, or refuse to go to school. With the help of a professional psychotherapist, the family works together to face and resolve these unresolved conflicts, helping the child to get out of the rut and grow up and leave home. We wish all our children the best of luck in their journey to be able to successfully step out of their homes and grow up.