School refusal behaviours profiles among nigerian adolescents: differences in risk and protective psychosocial factors

School Refusal Behaviours (SRBs) is potentially a risk factor for students' academic and mental wellbeing. Effective management of SRBs demands that the heterogeneity of underlying motives/reasons for refusing school among students are taken into consideration. Yet there is inadequate empirical findings on the SRBs profiles and the SRBs risk and protective psychosocial factors among the Nigerian adolescent. Anchored on the bio-ecological agency framework, we aimed to identify SRBs profiles among Nigerian adolescents by employing a person-centered approach, as well as to determine how students in the identified profiles differed on risk and protective psychological/social factors. Using a cross-sectional research design, we surveyed a total of 539 (48.4% = male; 51.6% = female) adolescent students in secondary schools in Anambra State. We used the latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify four profiles among our population: moderate SRB profile, low SRB profile, mixed SRB profile, and high SRB Profile. Regarding the outcome variables, significant differences existed on students' test anxiety, perceived parent, teacher, classmate supports, and demanding parenting styles. We concluded that adolescents who reported SRBs are not monolithic, and that students who reported higher SBRs could be affected by multiple factors. Our finding is significant given the fact that it points to the need to take into consideration multiple factors in mounting intervention programmes.