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boarding school syndrome

boarding school syndrome noun: a set of lasting psychological problems, such as defensiveness and failed interpersonal attachments, that may result from being sent away to boarding school at an early age.

Noun

boarding school syndrome (uncountable)

  1. A set of lasting psychological problems, such as defensiveness and failed interpersonal attachments, that may result from being sent away to boarding school at an early age.

Origin of boarding school syndrome

Coined by psychotherapist Joy Schaverien in 2011.

Questions about boarding school syndrome

What does boarding school syndrome mean?
Boarding school syndrome means a set of lasting psychological problems, such as defensiveness and failed interpersonal attachments, that may result from being sent away to boarding school at an early age.
What part of speech is boarding school syndrome?
Boarding school syndrome is a noun.

Words near boarding school syndrome in the dictionary

  1. boarding pass
  2. boarding passes
  3. boarding pike
  4. boarding pikes
  5. boarding school
  6. boarding school syndrome
  7. boarding schools
  8. boarding stable
  9. boarding stables
  10. boarding up
  11. boarding-house

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boarding school syndrome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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