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Reasons for truancy: a literature review for school counsellors

Students who are truant from school are frequently referred to a guidance officer or school psychologist in the hope of improving their school attendance. This presents a difficult task as little is known about the effectiveness of counselling with such students. This paper reviews the literature to identify reasons for truancy and to suggest some ways in which this knowledge may be of assistance in developing appropriate counselling strategies. This paper is concerned with truanting students of compulsory high school age. A definition of the various types of truancy is presented and a number of possible causes are identified. Two concepts which offer possibilities for developing counselling strategies with truanting students are discussed. These are, firstly, the feeling of alienation and disaffection from school experienced by many truants and, secondly, the individual psychology theory of Psychological Reversals proposed by Apter (1982).