Who’s Skipping School: Characteristics of Truants in 8th and 10th Grade

Abstract

Truancy is a serious concern that affects most school districts in the United States; however, we do not have accurate estimates of the prevalence of truancy due to inconsistent tracking and reporting practices of schools. As a result, our best current estimates of the national state of truancy may be from self-reported data. In this article, the first objective is to present the prevalence of self-reported recent truancy (ie, truancy within the past 4 weeks) among 8th- and 10th-grade students. The second objective is to explore associations between recent truant behavior, demographic and family characteristics, school-related risk factors, and drug use. The 2003 wave of the Monitoring the Future data was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between many potential predictors and the probability of recent truancy. Nearly, 11% of 8th graders and over 16% of 10th graders reported recent truancy. Among the most salient predictors of recent truancy were parental education, having large amounts of unsupervised time after school, school disengagement variables (eg, poor grades and low educational aspirations), and drug use. Truancy is a common behavior among adolescents and can have potentially deleterious effects. This paper offers insight into the types of students who may be prone to skipping school and suggests potential target audiences for truancy prevention initiatives.