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Features of children taken to juvenile court for failure to attend school

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Ian Berg ,
Alan Butler ,
Roy Hullin ,
Rebecca Smith  and
Stephen Tyrer
Ian Berg*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds
Alan Butler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds
Roy Hullin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds
Rebecca Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds
Stephen Tyrer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Ian Berg, Department of Psychiatry, 15 Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9LT.
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Synopsis

The social reports on 84 children taken to court for failure to attend school were studied. Independent raters were able to assess reliably the presence and absence of a variety of variables concerned with the individual's behaviour, school, family, and involvement with social work agencies. In 68 instances teachers' questionnaires measuring psychiatric disturbance had been completed. There was no evidence that truancy in these circumstances is a homogeneous condition. At least 3 independent sets of features appear to be involved in most cases. One involves antisocial and educational problems (‘clinical truancy’), a second is concerned with adverse social factors and parental complicity (‘school withdrawal’), and a third set includes a tendency to social isolation (‘school refusal’). There was no evidence that individuals tend to exhibit one of these features to the exclusion of the others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , August 1978 , pp. 447 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

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