Thresholds for School Response to Adolescent Social Isolation: Teachers’ Accounts from Lithuania and Latvia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17770/eid2026.1.109Keywords:
social isolation, early adolescence, school-based support, school psychology, peer disconnectionAbstract
This qualitative cross-national study examined how lower-secondary schools in Lithuania and Latvia recognise adolescent social isolation and decide when it warrants intervention. In the article, social isolation refers to teacher-visible peer disconnection and marginal participation in classroom and peer life. The study focused on the interpretive processes within schools through which such disconnection becomes actionable in everyday practice. Participants were 104 teachers (52 in each country) who provided written responses to an online questionnaire that included five multi-part narrative items. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were developed: (1) social isolation as an interpretive threshold for intervention, (2) helpful support as relational and ecological rather than referral-based, (3) parents as gatekeepers and co-shapers of support, and (4) support as selective rather than universal in everyday school practice. Across both contexts, teachers did not describe support as an automatic response to aloneness. Coordinated help was more likely when peer disconnection was interpreted as persistent, involuntary, and restrictive of school participation. Teachers described helpful support as involving trusted adult relationships, work with the peer and classroom context, gradual opportunities for participation, and specialist involvement when needed. The findings suggest that school responses are shaped by practical judgement, parental cooperation, and existing support pathways, leaving quiet, non-disruptive disconnection potentially below the threshold for coordinated support.
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