Persistent Non‐attendance at School*

Externalizing and internalizing syndromes in relation to school truancy among adolescents in high‐risk urban schools

“…Unfortunately, there are few studies focusing on school truancy and psychopathology, particularly in non-clinical setting. Many earlier studies were based either on clinic-referred samples (Hersov, 1960;Robins 1978) or referrals to school attendance committees or court (Bools et al, 1990;Robins 1978). Published work shows that studies conducted at schools like in the Bradford Survey (Berg et al, 1993) and the Great Smoky Mountains Study (Egger et al, 2003) which investigated the nature of psychiatric disorders in school absentees, identified an overlap of psychiatric symptoms among the students.…”

School Phobia: A Review of Some Issues

“…(It has been repeatedly emphasized in the I iterature that, unlike typical truants, school phobics do not have anti-social problems. See, for example, Partridge, 1939;Hersov, 1960a).…”

“…or school refusal (Morgan, 1959). have great difficulty in attending school as a result of a neurotic disturbance,)md that this is quite distinct from truancy, which is more often part of an anti-social or conduct disorder (Warren, 1948;Hersov, 1960a). School phobia is a condition which involves more than a simple fear of school.…”

A case study of ten school-avoidant students

“…Warren (1948) and Hersov (1960), in their studies, compared the differences between truants and children who refused to go to school. Truants were diagnosed with conduct disorder while those who refused to go to school were classified as neurotic.…”

“…Therefore, timely and proper identification of subtypes was crucial to treatment planning. Hersov (1960) Weiss and Cain (1964) looked at the personality characteristics of the child; the two types identified were the overdependent child with a clinging mother or the overdependent child with a rejecting mother. Chotiner and Forrest (1974), Waldfogel (1960), andTietz (1970) concluded that the prognosis for the older school-avoidant student was more guarded.…”