Thinking Process of Students Who Continuously Engage in Truancy

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to examine students' thinking process concerning truancy, namely thoughts that lead them to refuse to attend school after having previously attended as well as thoughts that result in their continued truancy.
Method: The research participants were six students who had resumed school after truancy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed with a modified version of the grounded theory approach.
Results: The truant students experienced notions such as pain from being too childish, comprehensive irritation, and unable to move [their] body after experiencing deep physical pain at school. The subjects who felt they were not "popular" fluctuated between "feeling protected" and "wanting to be accepted" while also continuing to feel "an adherence to the mainstream" to attend school regularly. If the feeling of being "protected" was strong, students harbored the thought that they would branch away (from the mainstream). In contrast, if the feeling of "wanting to be accepted" was strong, the students believed that "they could not fit in anymore," and had no choice but to continue truancy.