How to Discourage Children Skipping School

Researchers say that a large number of children in schools around the world engage in behaviors that see them skipping classes intentionally, either by lying to their parents, or by justifying their absences by presenting sick leaves from the doctors. In a new scientific paper published in the latest issue of the journal Deutsches Arzteblatt International, experts list a few of the motives that kids have to skip school, as well as a number of tactics they employ, and also propose various solutions to this problem, AlphaGalileo reports. The work was led by child and adolescent psychiatrist Martin Knollmann.

The expert is, however, quick to point out that truancy – defined as the unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling – only catches on a psychiatric relevance if it is accompanied by psychiatric symptoms, or if the children caught skipping school do so very often. According to the research, children begin to engage in such behaviors around the age of 11, although the roots for this are set when they are as young as six. Scientists have determined that a number of other factors are at work in influencing truancy as well, such as obesity, a poor physical condition, or diseases including asthma.

Overall, it was found that kids who avoided school more often than others were more likely to have experienced, or continuously been exposed to, a more stressful life than their peers that attended classes often. The team is also quick to point out the difference between truancy and school avoidance. In the second case, children may be more prone to involving their parents in the matter, presenting reasons such as fear and anxiety to motivate why they do not want to attend school. Often, they also accuse various types of diffuse physical symptoms, such as headaches, and a general state of feeling unwell, to emphasize their desire not to attend school.

In the case of Germany, it is estimated that as much as five to ten percent of all children do not attend school on a regular basis. Many kids skip school to go to bars, or simply hang out, and the phenomenon is widespread and socially accepted. The new research could not establish precisely how many of these children were affected by psychiatric symptoms as well, but could say for sure that two times as many boys were involved in school-skipping behaviors than girls. One thing that parents and doctors should avoid at all times is providing children who regularly skip school with sick notes or prescriptions for residential care breaks, the group concludes.