BACKGROUND Educational attainment is an important determinant of diverse health outcomes. Truancy among adolescents jeopardizes chances of achieving their educational goals. Truant behaviors are also associated with various psychosocial problems. There is however limited data on the prevalence and factors associated with truancy among adolescents in Africa. METHODS We used data from the Swazi...

Truancy has well-documented short-term and long-term consequences, but there are few studies that look at its impact on injury-related mortality. This study evaluated the rate of injury-related mortality for 2006-2010 among youth (11-17 years old) with a history of severe truancy compared with youth without such history. There were 168 injury-related deaths (51 homicide, 29 suicide and 88 unint...

Truancy in upper secondary education is a widespread problem, which contributes significantly to school dropout risk. However, the underlying mechanisms of truancy have remained unstudied. This longitudinal study 1853 Finnish students examined how initial levels and changes student engagement from primary (Grade 6) lower (Grades 7 9) predicted education, whether cynicism (losing interest school...

BACKGROUND Truancy has been linked to risky sexual behaviours in teenagers. However, no studies in England have examined the association between truancy and teenage pregnancy, and the use of truancy as a marker of teenagers at risk of pregnancy. METHODS Using logistic regression, we investigated the association between truancy at age 15 and the likelihood of teenage pregnancy by age 19 among ...

BACKGROUND Surprisingly little is known about the frequency, stability, and correlates of school fear and truancy based on self-reported data of adolescents. METHODS Self-reported school fear and truancy were studied in a total of N = 834 subjects of the community-based Zurich Adolescent Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS) at two times with an average age of thirteen and sixteen year...

This paper explores the way in which truancy levels are structured by individual social class and the social mix of the school within the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a national survey of young people, truancy levels are found to be higher among working-class and Traveller students. Truancy is more prevalent in predominantly working-class schools, mainly because young people see them as less...

In this study, the associations between peer effects and academic functioning in middle adolescence (N = 342; 14-15 years old; 48% male) were investigated longitudinally. Similarity in achievement (grade point averages) and unexplained absences (truancy) was explained by both peer selection and peer influence, net of acceptance, and connectedness. Friendships were formed and maintained when ado...

This case study of truancy in Coventry puts into a local context a national phenomenon of considerable concern to local authorities in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The records of parents prosecuted for their child's truancy over a twenty-five year period provided the data for analysis. It was possible to produce a profile of the truants and their families within the socio-economi...

Peer Effects, Unobserved Factors and Risk Behaviours: An Analysis of Alcohol Abuse and Truancy among Adolescents The objective of this paper is to examine the factors which affect alcohol abuse and truancy among adolescents. We propose a new theoretical specification in which alcohol abuse and truancy appear as derived demands, given that they condition peer group and family acceptance, and we ...