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July 10, 2008Study reveals potential reasons for school absenteeism |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A questionnaire of Swiss schoolchildren has revealed the extent of truancy and school fear. The research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, links truancy and school fear to life events, parental behaviour and school environment. Over 800 children completed the questionnaire, once at thirteen years old and then again at sixteen years old. They were asked to rate themselves on whether they are scared of school, and whether they ever play truant. He explained, "Our study not only allows the assessment of the frequency of fear and truancy but also allows a clinically meaningful differentiation of these two forms of absenteeism by behavioural and psychosocial characteristics". This new study reveals that 6.9% of the pupils experienced school fear at thirteen years old while 3.6% reported it three years later. According to Steinhausen, there are many differences between pupils with school fear and truants, "At age sixteen, kids with school fear showed less self esteem and perceived more competition amongst students than the truants. At age thirteen the students with school fear felt less accepted by their peers than the children who played truant". Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health is an international platform for rapid and comprehensive scientific communication on child and adolescent mental health across different cultural backgrounds. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an independent online publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This commitment is based on the view that open access to research is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science.
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