Spijbelen aan het einde van het basisonderwijs en het begin van het voortgezet onderwijs: De invloed van sociale bindingen en zelfcontrole

The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the prevalence of truancy at a relatively early age and to investigate to what extent such risk behavior can be predicted by social bonds (Hirschi, 1969) and self-control (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). In late elementary education, 13 per cent of the children were reported to be occasional truants. Two years later, this percentage had risen to 19 per cent. With the aid of multinomial logistic regression, we simultaneously examined the influence of various predictors. An important finding is that self-control, when it is included in the model together with several control elements, has no direct influence on truancy or non-truancy. The two control elements included in the model – attachment (to parents and teachers) and moral beliefs in rules – do have an effect on truancy. Children with a disadvantaged social background fall into the truancy group to an above-average degree. (This article in only in Dutch).