AbstractsSocial Work

Truancy in children referred to a child guidance clinic.

by Robert S. Johnston




Institution: McGill University
Department: School of Social Work.
Degree: Master of Social Work.
Year: 1952
Keywords: Social Work.
Record ID: 1482675
Full text PDF: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile123976.pdf


Abstract

The time-honoured attitude toward the problem of truancy is that it is purely an educational concern. Howerver, it is becoming recognized more and more as a behaviour disorder arising from a personality abnormality. Disorders of personality arise, to a very large extent, from unsatisfactory relationships within the family such as subjecting the child, during the early period of his development, to unwholesome and adverse parental attitudes, to unusual forutnes and to seduction by adults and older children. Children within the school may also cause the child to truant. He may be bored with a stereotyped school routine or find the curriculum, with its accent on verbal learning, discouraging. He may interpret the teacher’s impatience as a personal affront. From situations such as these, a child often chooses turancy as an escape. In a community lacking in recreational facilities, a child may seek outlets for his excess energy in unhealthy ways. In the community, too, he may suffer from discrimination on social or religious grounds. If the frustration arising from such conditions is carried over into the classroom, he may react by truanting. The Community Service Society of New York concludes that, “...truancy is found in conjunction with a complicated set of difficulties....(it is) a response to a general disturbance of the personality and the environment. As a result, children have not been able to adjust in the school setting.” [...]