The school as an influencing factor of truancy
Open accessAbstract
As previous research has shown, truants have a higher risk of becoming delinquent. However, the causes of truancy are only seldom analyzed in criminological research. Since truancy is a school related behavior, it can be assumed that school factors play a major role in causing it. Using a German wide representative sample of almost 40,000 pupils of the ninth grade (mean age: 15 years; 50.3 percent male) from 1,200 schools several school factors and their relationship with truancy are tested. These factors are theoretical derived from a push-and-pull-model. Push factors are for instance teacher bullying or violent schoolmates, pull factors are responsive teachers and positive relationships with schoolmates. The results show that teacher bullying and low teacher control significantly increase truancy. Compared with individual risk factors like self-control or school achievement school factors are of lower importance. Additional analyses reveal that there are interaction effects between individual and school level variables: A high level of teacher bullying particularly increases truancy of pupils with bad grades.
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Both school refusal and truancy can be similarly influenced by broader contextual factors related to peers, schools, and communities.
“In addition, both constructs can be similarly influenced by broader classes of contextual factors related to peers, schools, and communities”
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- Authors
- Baier, D.
- Affiliations
- ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Baier, Dirk
- ORCID
- Baier, Dirk
- Venue
- International Journal of Criminology and Sociology
- Publisher
- Lifescience Global
- Published
- 2016-12-27
- Volume
- 5
- Pages
- 191-202
- ISSN
- 1929-4409 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4243632016
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 5.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (publishedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ZHAW Digital Collection (cc-by-nc)
- International Journal of Criminology and Sociology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Keywords
- truancy, school factors, teacher bullying, teacher control, push and pull model, school violence, peer relationships, academic performance, ninth grade students
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