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European Society or European Societies?

EuroConference on the Causes and Consequences of Low

Education in Contemporary Europe, Granada, Spain,

18-23 September 2004

Truancy in Germany: A theoretical and empirical analysis

Michael Wagner

Imke Dunkake

Bernd Weiss

Research Institute of Sociology

University of Cologne

[email protected]



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Abstract

The goal of this article is to describe the extent of truancy in Cologne and to identify its

relevant predictors. Regarding classical deviance theories (Control Theory, Anomie

Theory, Urban Subculture Theory), we generate and test our hypotheses. Our analysis

is based on a sample which was conducted in 1999 by the Max Planck Institute forForeign and International Criminal Law. It contains information about students from

grade 8. to 10. Our results show that 7,9% of all students can be defined as truants,

boys skip classes more than girls, and the higher the age, the higher the prevalence of

truancy. We find the highest amount of truants at Hauptschulen and Sonderschulen. It

is shown that truancy is a multidimensional phenomenon and cannot be explained by

just one theory.



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I. Problem

Recently, truancy has attracted a wider interest in public discussion as well as

in educational research. Even the First Periodical Security Report (BMI 2001) -

issued by the Federal Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs - pays close

attention to this matter.

Because truants neglect compulsory school attendance, they must be

considered as administrative offenders in the legal sense. Children who turn

seven years old before the 30th of June are obliged to attain school regularly

from that year on1. At present, compulsory schooling time totals up to twelve

years. In general, children need to go to school for at least nine full years plus

three optional part-time school years. Four Federal States (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bremen, Brandenburg, Berlin) demand a full compulsory school

attendance time of ten years.

According to the Security Report, fines and complaints due to the violation of

school attendance increased dramatically within the 1990s (BMI 2001: 575, Fn.

1819). Even though many authors believe that the rates of truancy have

increased in Germany (e.g. Schreiber-Kittl und Schröpfer 2002: 16), it remains

uncertain whether this is true or not. The estimated number of unreported cases

of truancy is considerably high, so that even a slight increase of supervision by

schools, authorities and police would already increase the rates of registered

truancy. Additionally, the amount of fines depends on how the authorities

handle truancy and which rules schools apply when they report cases of truancy

to the supervisory school authority (Habermalz 2001).

Following the PISA study, 13% of the 15 years old children in the Old and 11%

in the New Federal States skipped classes within the last two weeks of school

1 After Elementary school (grades 1-4 in most federal states) children are separated accordingto their academic ability and attend one of three different kinds of schools: Hauptschule,Realschule or Gymnasium . The Hauptschule (grades 5-9) offers the same subjects as theRealschule and Gymnasium but at a slower pace and with some vocational-oriented courses.The Realschule (grades 5-10 in most federal states) qualifies for part-time vocational schools.The Gymnasium (grades 5-13 in most federal states) leads to the degree “Abitur” and preparesstudents for university. Students showing extremely low educational skills or mental/physical

handicaps attend the Sonderschule (special school). The Gesamtschule , or comprehensiveschool, is a more recent development. It takes the place of the other school types and enrollsstudents of all ability levels.



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(Baumert et al. 2002: 212). Beside the exact rates of school absenteeism, there

are six strong reasons to examine truancy in more detail: The first three reasons

outline the consequences of truancy for students, the latter three point out the

demand for intervention and possible ways of dealing with the problem of

truancy:

1. Children who frequently play truant are more likely to drop out of school

and to achieve an inadequate diploma. Therefore, they are socially and

economically disadvantaged for life (Farrington 1980; Hibbett et al. 1990;

Furgusson et al. 1995).

2. Truancy often marks the beginning of a criminal career. In this sense

truancy is a “risk factor” for present and further delinquent acts (Robinsand Radcliffe 1980; Loeber und LeBlanc 1990; BMI 2001; Loeber und

Farrington 2001).

3. Dealing with students playing truant takes a lot of time for teachers.

Truants may deteriorate the atmosphere within the classroom as well as

within the school (Baumert et al. 2002).

4. Psychological strain or mental illness, like school phobia or separation

anxiety, are possible causes for truancy that need medical treatment

(Hersov and Berg 1980; Bauer 1992; Lee and Miltenberg 1996).

5. Enduring truancy indicates structural school problems, as the school does

not ensure the integration of students sufficiently. Because of such failure

specific school measures are required. In some cities, public authorities do

not only impose fines, but also react with police provisions in order to

reduce the number of truants. In May 1998, the city of Nürnberg started a

program for truants that - among other things - makes the police supervise

children at public meeting points and eventually hand them over to the

school or their legal guardians (Schreiber-Kittl and Schröpfer 2002: 28 ).

6. Furthermore, truancy can result from difficult situations within the family

(Hersov 1969; Galloway 1982; Brown 1983). If this is the case, there is a

strong need for intervention and support.

While truancy has been intensely studied in the United States and Great Britain

(Wilmers und Greve 2002: 404) and international comparative studies such as

TIMMS (1994/1995) also report results on school absenteeism, in Germany



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major projects in this research area have started only recently. Worth

mentioning are the studies of the Institute of Criminological Research in Lower

Saxony (Wetzels et al. 2000; Wilmers et al. 2002), a research project conducted

by the German Youth Institute and studies at the Universities of Potsdam

(Sturzbecher und Dietrich 1994) and Rostock (Schulze und Wittrock 2001).Moreover, data on truancy are collected in many youth and student surveys that

analyze juvenile delinquency. However, theory-guided and methodologically

differentiated studies hardly exist so far.

The goal of the following study is to describe the prevalence of truancy in a

major German City (Cologne) and to identify the relevant predictors.

Hypotheses are deduced from classical deviance theories. This article is part ofthe project “Prevalence and Determinants of Truancy in Cologne”2.

II. ConceptCurrent research does not give a standardized definition of either ‘skipping

school’ or ‘truancy’. Oehme and Franzke (2002: 67) describe this as a

‘confusion of concepts’. The two terms are partly used synonymously with the

notions of school tiredness, school absenteeism, school phobia, school refusalbehavior etc. (Tyerman 1968; Hersov and Berg 1980; Oehme and Franzke

2002; Ricking 2003).

In international research, truancy is defined as ‘unjustified intentional absence

from school’ (Pinquardt and Masche 1999: 221; Van Petegem 1994: 271). This

paper follows this definition and regards truancy as the unauthorized

absenteeism from school

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. Research agrees on the necessity to separate minorcases of truancy from severe ones. The term ‘frequent truancy’ takes this

differentiation into account by describing persistent absence from school,

regardless of its causes.

Separating harmless cases of truancy from persistent truancy seems to be

difficult though. Many authors (e.g. Thimm 2000) mention different degrees of

2 The project “Prevalence and Determinants of Truancy in Cologne” is located at the ResearchInstitute of Sociology at the University of Cologne and has been supported by the CologneGEW Foundation since February 2002 (Number of Project: W-01-02-001).3 Ricking and Neukäter (1997) modify this definition by using the parents’ knowledge or approval

of their childrens’ non-attendance as an additional criterion (Parents withholding their childrenfrom school).



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intensity that truancy could be defined by. In the US, students are classified as

truants if their missing periods exceed a marginal value of five or ten days or

10% of the total number of annual class days (Burley and Harding 1998).

III. Theories and HypothesesFrom a sociological point of view, truancy can be considered as deviant

behavior. The following analysis will concentrate on three theories of

delinquency: 1) The social control theory (Hirschi 1969) plus its extension of

family factors through the theory of informal control by Sampson and Laub

(1993), 2) The theory of anomie that is combinable with the expectancy value

theory, and 3) The theory of urban subcultures which also includes elements of

the theory of anomie, the social disorganization theory, the subculture theoryand the theory of differential associations.

1. Social Control Theory

Social control theory does not attempt to explain why individuals are engaged in

criminal acts but rather why individuals choose to obey conventional norms

(Hirschi 1969: 10). The attachment an individual holds to persons, groups or

institutions which support conventional values and norms is of central interest. Ifthis attachment is fragile, the risk of deviant behavior is greater. According to

Hirschi’s social bond theory (1969), the strength of this attachment depends on

four factors: A) the emotional attachment to meaningful persons such as family

members, teachers and peers, B) the commitment to conventional goals, C) the

involvement in conventional activities and D) the extent of belief in social rules.

A) The emotional attachment to meaningful persons directs individual behaviorto the wishes and expectations of significant others. Thus, close relationships to

conventionally acting persons should decrease the risk of truancy.

Social control theory emphasizes the family as the main reference group for

adolescents. Therefore, with respect to the family as an institution of

socialization we will not only concentrate on the ‘emotional attachment’, but also

consider an extension by Sampson and Laub (1993) that has been formulated

within the scope of a reanalysis of the longitudinal study of Glueck and Glueck



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(1950). In contrast to Hirschi, when analysing the family4, Sampson and Laub

do not only acquire the degree of emotional attachment, but also add two more

elements that are extracted from the coercion theory and the reintegrative

shaming theory. From this perspective, the emotional bond only represents one

part of the control function of families, which needs to be completed by twofurther elements: one is the way of bringing up and disciplining the children, the

other is parents’ supervision of their children. While the degree of emotional

attachment represents a form of indirect parental control, the two other

elements focus on a direct form of parental control. Consequently, three types

of parental control are finally identifiable (Sampson and Laub 1993: 68): the

degree of emotional attachment to the parents, the way of bringing up and

disciplining children, and the form of supervising the children.

The degree of truancy increases,

H1: if the emotional attachment to the parents is very low,

H2: the more that the way of bringing up and disciplining children is inconsistent

and violent,

H3: the less parents supervise their children.

Looking at the attachment to teachers, the following can be stated:

H1a: The lower the emotional attachment to teachers, the higher the degree of

truancy.

Peers are another relevant reference group, primarily in adolescence. As their

function as an agent of socialization is already described by the urban

subculture theory (cp. III.3), we will not explain it any further at this point.

B) The more investments in conventional goals in life and careers a student

has, the stronger a rational consideration of advantages and disadvantages of

deviant behavior results in an orientation towards conventional goals. With a

high investment in the educational career, the costs of truancy (e.g. to repeat a

school year, poor school grades) are higher than the gains (leisure time, less

homework). However, if a student has nothing to lose – good school grades, a

4 Sampson and Laub (1993) propose an influence of structural characteristics of the family oforigin (residential mobility, family size, crowding, family disruption, mother’s employment,socioeconomic status, foreign-born, father’s deviance and mother’s deviance) on the threedimensions of control (attachment, discipline, supervision). An examination of this causalrelationship would be too extensive. Hence, the further illustration will not cover this matter.



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higher reputation within the class and the family – a permanent school

absenteeism may seem rational. Types of secondary schools differ according to

their prospects for the future (e.g. career outlook). As opportunities a student

has in life are closely related to a successful educational career, it helps to

explain why students skip school less when attending a school with a highereducational demand (Sturzbecher 2001; Wagner 2002; Wilmers and Greve

2002).

H4: The more students have invested in their previous educational career, the

less likely it is that they will become truants.

C) The participation in conventional activities reduces the available time and the

opportunity to become delinquent (Hirschi 1969: 21). Additionally, the aspect oftime is related to a higher identification with conventional norms and values:

The longer an adolescent performs conventional activities, the more he will

identify himself with them.

H5: The more students participate in conventional activities outside school, the

less likely it is that they will become truants.

D) A strong orientation towards conventional values and norms that have been

internalized in the process of socialization reduces the acceptance of deviant

behavior. The examined interrelation between truancy and other forms of

deviant behavior (e.g. Glueck and Glueck 1950; Ball and Conolly 2000; Burgess

et al. 2002) as well as the relevance of truancy as a risk factor for a permanent

criminal career (Hibbett et al. 1990; Furgusson et al. 1995) refer to the

effectiveness of a general orientation towards conventional values and norms5.

H6: The stronger the internalization of conventional values and norms, the lower

the degree of truancy.

2. Anomie Theory

One of the oldest and most influential theories explaining deviant behavior is the

theory of anomie (strain theory), originally formulated by Durkheim in 1897

(1983). In 1938, Merton adopted essential assumptions of Durkheims theory

5 In their „General Theory of Crime“, Hirschi and Gottfredson analyze deviant behavior in a

rather psychological approach (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990) which mainly focuses on theconcept of self-control. Wilmers and Greve (2002) proved truants to have a low level of self-control.



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and extended them in his ‘Social Structure and Social Theory’ which appeared

in 1957. Merton distinguishes between a cultural and a social structure of

society. ‘Social structure’ is a pattern of social relationships. ‘Cultural structure’

determines the goals of action (e.g. social recognition, economic wealth) –

which are basically shaped by the middle class – and allocates theinstitutionalized legitimate means (e.g. occupational career), such as norms,

rules and values that determine how to achieve the cultural goals. Merton

generally hypothesizes the status of anomie within a society to emerge from a

discrepancy between cultural and social structure (Merton 1968: 216). The

social position of individuals within the social structure particularly influences the

chances to have access to the legitimate means. In contrast to members of the

middle and upper classes, members of the lower classes dispose of lessresources to achieve culturally defined goals. Therefore, they undergo a

stronger social pressure to find non-institutionalized and, as the case may be,

deviant ways to achieve those goals. There are five possible individual

reactions to compensate for the strain between cultural goals and

institutionalized means: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and

rebellion. Conformity is the normal case within a stable society which means the

aspiration of legitimate goals through legitimate means. However, Merton is

interested in the other types of adaptation. He wants to know to what extent

conditions of the social structure influence the prevalence of a particular type of

deviant behavior.

Merton calls the second type of adaptation innovation . This type appears if

cultural goals are aspired although the access to legitimate means is limited.

Members of lower social classes are disadvantaged, notably concerning the

goal ‘economic wealth’. Often, they do not have the legitimate means to achieve

economic wealth which in turn makes it more likely to apply illegitimate means

(Merton 1968: 198; Albrecht 1997: 510).

Ritualism can be understood as deviant behavior only in a restricted sense

because the goals are adapted to the means. The ritualist accepts the

legitimate means, but does not have distinct ambitions to achieve the culturally

defined goals, especially concerning economic wealth and social recognition



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(Merton 1968: 203). The goals are lowered or turned down as far as they

correspond to the means available.

As another type of adaptation, a person retreating either refuses or abstains

from the pursuit of legitimate goals and means. In this context, Mertonespecially refers to social outcasts (Merton 1968: 207).

Rebellion marks an exceptional case, as this type does not adapt the given

goals and means, but actively tries to reassess them.

But how exactly can the theory of anomie explain truancy? First, we will make

assumptions about the goals that students have. Because it is not alwayspossible to specify the goals and means when analyzing a concrete research

issue (Opp 1974: 126; Lamnek 1985: 239) and because it is impossible to

theoretically deduce all relevant goals, we will concentrate on two types of

individual goals (Holtappels 1997): educational success on the one hand and

social recognition or economical wealth on the other. By doing so, educational

success is hierarchically subordinated to social recognition and economic

wealth as cultural goals and functions as a means to these goals. However,

legitimate means to achieve educational success might be measured by good

school grades and type of school. Summarizing the paragraph, the following

hierarchy of goals and means becomes obvious: School grades – educational

success – economic wealth6.

The theory of anomie does not claim a connection between factors of social

structure and legitimate means for achieving educational success – namely

school grades – however there are quite some research findings proving this

relationship in the field of class-specific socialization (Rolff 1976). For Germany,

the PISA study showed a strong positive correlation between social origin and

students skills in the fields of reading, mathematics and natural sciences

(Baumert and Schümer 2001: 361). Anglo-American studies could even prove a

6 Another way of interpretation is not to regard the educational achievement, but the actualschool attendance as a legitimate means to fulfil the goal ‘educational success’ (Nielsen andGerber 1979). In this context, it might occur that parents withhold their children from school,because they have to supervise younger siblings or because they have to work in order toincrease the income of the household.



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negative connection between the social status of the family of origin and

illegitimate absence from school (Tyerman 1968; Farrington 1980).

Concerning truancy, the individual types of adaptation might be interpreted as

followed (Table 1): Conformity (the “proper” student). The student hasinternalized the cultural goal ‘success in school’ and in addition possesses the

legitimate means necessary to achieve that goal. Truancy does not take place

in this case.

Innovation (“active truancy”). The student accepts “educational success” as an

immediate goal in order to attain a professional position that offers financial

security, social recognition and economic wealth, but he does not have thelegitimate means to reach the accepted goal. According to Merton, the lack of

legitimate means results from a socioeconomic disadvantage of the family of

origin. The innovator tries to find ways other than regular school attendance

(part-time work, criminal activities, acceptance by the peers) in order to achieve

the goals accepted by society.

Table 1: Types of Truancy

Modes ofAdaptation Types of Truancy Culturally approved goals(educationalachievement,economic wealth)

Institutionalized meansof achievement(academic achievement)

Conformity The „proper“ student + +

Innovation Active truancy + –

Ritualism Passive truancy – +

Retreatism Complete truancy – –

Rebellion Truancy as protest +/– +/–

(+) = Acceptance; (–) = Rejection; (+/–) = Rejection of existing goals and means andsubstitution of new goals and means by the individual.

Ritualism (“passive truancy”). The student does not accept the purpose of going

to school. A regular school attendance takes place just because it is a matter of

routine: One attends school because everybody attends school. That is why, in

most of the cases, school efforts only fulfil minimal demands. The

characteristics of the passive truant (physically present, but not showing any

interest) are compatible to the Merton type of ritualism and often function as aprecursor of active truancy (Schreiber-Kittl and Schröpfer 2002: 82).



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Social retreatism (“complete truancy”). S ocial retreatism can be characterized

by lethargic behavior. Neither the cultural goals nor the institutionalized means

are accepted. In contrast to the rebel, this type does not strive to find

alternatives to the missing goals and means. According to Merton, social

retreatism often results from frustrating experiences if both, goals and means,had been accepted but did not turn out to be effective (Lamnek 1993: 121).

Because of bad experiences, students refuse to go to school, as it no longer

makes sense to them.

Rebellion (“truancy as protest”). Students refuse to go to school because they

want to protest against the goals and means of the institutionalized school. In

contrast to the type of social reatreatism or the ritualist, the rebel tries to findalternative goals and means. Intense absence from school is no passive

truancy, but rather expresses dissatisfaction about the existing conditions.

Truancy that is approved by the parents can be interpreted as a type of

rebellious adaptation which is passed on from generation to generation. That is

the case if parents believe school attendance to be wrong for either educational,

religious or ideological reasons and make their children stay at home or be

taught in educational institutions other than school.

If school efforts are defined as means and educational success is defined as

the goal, the following can be stated about students of the innovator type:

H7: The lower the socioeconomic status of the family of origin, the worse the

school achievement.

H7a: The worse the school achievement, the more likely students try to achieve

goals like social recognition or economic wealth outside of school.

H7b: The more intensely students follow up their goals outside of school, the

stronger the truancy.

Mertons ritualist type of adaptation characterizes students whose academic

achievement is satisfactory, but who do not strive for educational goals and who

internally isolate themselves from being taught in school. Those students are

physically present within the lessons, therefore they cannot be called active



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truants. Rebellion will not be considered here, as those students barely have

the means to develop alternatives for the legally stipulated school attendance.

The theory of anomie focuses on the social, not on the individual conditions for

deviant behavior. In order to make precise assumptions about individualdecisions, we will combine the anomie theory with the expectancy value theory,

focusing the innovative type of adaptation (Friedrichs 1997). Truancy then

needs to be understood as a result of cost-benefit-analysis (Burgess et al.

2002). If school attendance does not offer the student a good chance of

economic gain or a professional career, the innovator is behaving rationally if he

aims for alternative activities such as gainful employment. Following the urban

subculture theory (cp. chapter 3), the acceptance by peers might alsocompensate for a lack of acceptance by the educational system. If students find

alternatives to school attendance that are of high gain and if truancy does not

involve too many costs, the student is more likely to refuse school. Students

with a low educational level and/or poor school performance prefer those

alternatives because their future prospects of a secure and financially lucrative

employment are very low. Thus, the benefit of a regular school attendance will

be rated as very low7. As a specification of hypothesis H7 we assume:

H8: The lower the perceived benefit of school attendance, the more likely the

student is to do part-time work or to aim for acceptance through peers.

3. Urban Subculture Theory

An important field within socioecological research analysis is the question to

what extent aspects of the urban environment (e.g. high unemployment or high

rates of criminality within the community) lead to juvenile delinquency

(Oberwittler 1999: 406). In this context, the urban community (‘breeding area’)

functions as the main unit of analysis.

The socioecological approach regarding the explanation of delinquency is

based on several assumptions:

1. Delinquency does not result from individual disorientation, but from

disorientation concerning the urban community. It is defined as “breakdown

7 Two further hypotheses might be deduced from the value expectancy theory: the less likely itis that a students’ truanting behavior is to be detected and the less he has to fear negativesanctions, the higher the risk of truancy.



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in conventional institutional controls as well as informal social control forces,

within a community or neighbourhood” (Shoemaker 2000: 78).

2. The process of disorganization is mainly to be found within communities

which are affected by industrialization, urbanization and immigration.

3. Socially disorganized urban communities are dominated by non-conventional norms and values. Their rates of criminality are higher and

there is a tradition of deviant behavior that cannot be related to anomie. With

this in mind, ‘delinquency areas’ might also be defined as local

“subcultures”.

Adolescents might learn from their peers that economic wealth and social

recognition are not only to be achieved by means of conventional school

education and vocational training. Deviant behavior might also be a realistic andfeasible alternative to achieve those goals. The peer group as an agent of

socialization plays an important role within the theories of subculture of the

Chicago School (Trasher 1927; Whyte 1943; Cohen 1955) and was also the

center of attention within the “theory of cultural transmission” by Shaw and

McKay (1969). Frequent contact with older delinquent adolescents in the urban

community increase the inclination towards delinquency for younger

adolescents.

In their theory of differential opportunity, Cloward and Ohlin (1960) combine

elements of the anomie theory, the theory of urban subculture and the theory of

differential association formulated by Sutherland (1939). It is claimed that not

only the access to legitimate means but also to illegitimate means helps to

explain deviant behavior. Two elements are needed in order to utilize

illegitimate means successfully: a learning structure as well as a structure of

opportunities (Cloward 1968: 321). The learning structure describes a context

which permits the actor to acquire non-conventional values and criminal abilities

that are necessary to carry out a ‘deviant role’. The term ‘opportunities’ means

that individuals must have the chance to fulfil these roles actively. Both learning

structure and opportunities are primarily located in disorganized communities.

The influence of the urban context on truancy has been researched in a

rudimentary fashion. Farrington (1980) showed that 36,7% of the truants come



15

from slum areas. Considering the assumptions concerning the extent of local

disorganization and the degree of deviant behavior, one can deduce:

H9: The more disorganized a urban community is, the more likely an adolescent

comes into contact with peers that skip school, and the higher the risk ofindividual truancy.

IV. Data and Method

1. Sample

Our empirical analysis is based on a survey of grade 8th to 10th students from

Cologne and Freiburg. The “MPI Youth Survey 1999/2000” was conducted in

1999 by the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in

Freiburg, headed by Dietrich Oberwittler8 (Oberwittler et al. 2001; Oberwittler

2003a). In total, about 5000 students participated in the study. The following

analysis only makes use of the Cologne data record.

In Cologne, multistage non-random sampling took place. Therefore – in a very

constricted sense – these samplings cannot be defined as representative. First,a priori sampling of 69 communities9 was done, assuming that the total of all

these communities represents an optimal cross-section of the social structure of

Cologne.

To prove the representativeness of the sample, we compared the means of the

social structure of the sample communities with information about the

population of all city communities.10

Our analysis showed no significantdifferences between the sample and the population. In a next step, all public

schools in these communities were asked to participate in the study. 41 of 50

schools took part in the survey, therefore a response rate of 82% was reached.

Because all of the Gesamtschulen denied participation, we have to recognize a

8 We would explicity like to thank Dietrich Oberwittler for his cooperation.10 The response rate was low in case of Sonder- (51,7%) and Hauptschulen (78,3%). Areinquiry raised the proportion of realized interviews in Hauptschulen up to 81% (Oberwittler et

al. 2001: 12).



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bias in the sample. In every school a random sampling by class was done, so

that half of all classes of one class grade were represented in the sample. The

response rate of the classes was 84,9%10 (Oberwittler et al. 2001, 2003b). Two

different questionnaires were used. The questionnaire for this analysis focuses

on deviant behavior. The sample contains data from 1824 respondents (table2).

Table 2: Description of the data sample (Cologne)

Type of school N % Sex N % Age N %

Sonderschule 125 6,9 Boys 836 46,1 12 3 0,2

Hauptschule 452 24,8 Girls 979 53,9 13 356 19,6Realschule 375 20,6 14 497 27,4Gymnasium 872 47,8 15 573 31,6

16 307 16,917 68 3,818 8 0,4

Total 1824 100,0 Total 1815 100,0 Total 1812 100,0

2. Measurement

a. Truancy

Information on truancy is based on students’ self-reported statements. Even if

one can assume cases of truancy to be underestimated within the samplebecause those adolescents could not be met at school even after a number of

attempts, there are hardly any alternative methods. For obvious reasons,

parents are often not well informed about their children’s truancy, also

retrospective data on students’ school attendance reported by the teachers are

quite often unspecific (Wilmers et al. 2001; Naplava and Oberwittler 2002).

Thus, neither an evaluation of unauthorized missing periods noted by teachers

in the class register nor the interpretation of official demands for payment of afine are appropriate ways to measure the actual prevalence of truancy.

Students were asked, if they skipped classes for one or more than one day in

their whole school career, either alone or with friends. If the student replied

positively to this item, they were asked how often they missed school

unauthorized within the last twelve months (since September 1998).



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Only five students (0,3%) did not give any information about their total missing

periods in school. As a whole, 60 students (3,3%) did not answer the more

detailed question concerning the frequency of missing periods. A special pattern

of missing values can especially be made up by the comparison of the four

different school types. Students from the Gymnasium, Real- and Hauptschuleshow a similar proportion which runs between 2,4%, 3,5% and 2,2%. With

12,8%, students from Sonderschulen differ clearly from students of other school

types, this implies a slight underestimation of truancy within Sonderschulen.

Our definition of the term “truancy” is based on the number of days a student

plays truant. Oberwittler et al. (2001: 72) define those students to be “frequent

truants” who skipped school more than five times in the last year. We followthese guidelines and use the term truancy , if a student missed school without

permission more than five times within the last twelve months. We dichotomized

the metric variable into two categories: students skipping school more than five

times a year (truants) and those not missing school at all or skipping classes

less than five times a year. This distinction is based on empirical reasoning, not

on theoretical assumptions. On the one hand, the variable must explain a clear

qualitative difference between school absenteeism within a “harmless range”

and truancy as an indicator for an endangered school career. On the other hand

the distribution of the dependent variable is extremely left-skewed, therefore,

the threshold value for truancy should not be too high, as otherwise the number

of cases would be too small for our analysis.

Almost 30% of the students reported to have skipped classes within the last

twelve months. The average duration of being absent amounts to 1,8 missing

periods. In this context, one missing period covers at least one day. Truancy

increases with advancing school years (Table 3). About 8% of the students

skipped school more than five times and thus suit our definition of (frequent)

truancy (Table 11). 4% of the students reported to miss school more than ten

times.

b. Variables of the Control Theory

The four main variables of the social control theory are emotional attachment,

commitment to conventional goals, involvement in conventional activities and



18

belief in social rules. Sampson and Laub (1993) add two more elements to

emotional attachment, namely the parents’ way of bringing up their children and

parental supervision.

Two items were used to measure the extent of emotional attachment. Thestudents were asked to express their relationship to the parents in assigning

school grades (1=very good, 6=very poor) to it. On average, the students

estimate the relationship to their mother (1,83) to be better than that to their

father (2,25) (see also Table 11, in the appendix). Measuring the quality of the

relationship between students and teachers was realized with another scale

including four levels (1=completely agree, 4=completely disagree). Students

were asked whether they think that teachers try to maintain a good relationshipwith them. Three quarters of all students agree or completely agree on the

statement.

The perception of students concerning their parents’ way of bringing them up is

also measured by two items that both consist of a four-step scale (completely

agree – completely disagree). First, we were interested in whether the students

believe their parents to be too critical (2,06). Second, students were asked

whether they often get into conflict with their parents (2,27). The way of

disciplining was measured by two questions in which the students should inform

the interviewes whether they were physically punished frequently by their father

(1,27) or mother (1,22). The agreement to the item ‘If I am out, my parents

almost always know where I go to or who I meet’ serves to measure the

parental supervision. 87% of the students believed this statement to be ‘mostly’

or ‘exactly’ true.

The statement ‘I do my best at school’ should inform us about the extent of

educational investments . 80% of the respondents confirm such efforts (agree –

completely agree). The extent of conventional activities outside school was

measured by the affiliation to an association or an organization. Only groups

that were supposed to stand for conventional values and norms were taken into

account. The dichotomous variable takes the value one, if the respondents

replied that they are a member of either a human rights organization, a



19

voluntary help association or a religious organization. 12% of the interviewed

adolescents belong to at least one of these groups.

If persons agreed on the statement ‘One has to live by the law, even if this

implies an abandonment of personal interests’, we assumed a strong belief in social rules. As the data show, more than two thirds of the adolescents would

rather behave in accordance to the laws than pursue their own interests (‘mostly

agree’ and ’definitely agree’).

c. Variables of the Anomie Theory

Concerning the anomie theory, hypotheses are based on four basic concepts:

(1) Social status of the family (2), institutionalized means (3), cultural goals and(4) non- institutionalized means. Unfortunately, we do not have the appropriate

data in order to be able to measure cultural goals.

When questioning adolescents, measuring the social status of the family of

origin seemed to be difficult. On the basis of given information concerning the

professional employment of father and mother, an employment-prestige scale

was used to identify the socioeconomic status (Ganzeboom et al. 1992). The

initial scale with a value range from 16 to 90 was combined to a four-step index

of prestige (1 ‘low job prestige’ up to 4 ‘high job prestige’). We used the

maximum value of either father or mother, in case of single parents the value of

that particular parent was taken. Although the scale still showed 331 missing

values because of unspecific information about the parental employment, a

grouping of variables into wider categories allowed to use some of these

unspecific answers on employment that further reduced the number of missing

values to 129. A detailed analysis on missing values indicates a distortion in

favour of lower secondary school qualifications (Gymnasiasten 3%, Realschüler

5%, Hauptschüler 14%, Sonderschüler 18%). 57% of the students live in a

household in which the father or the mother are employed in jobs with ‘rather

high’ or ‘high’ prestige.

Academic achievement is to be seen as the most decisive institutionalized

legitimate mean in order to get educational success. The latter is measured by

three variables: the type of school, the self-reported average school grades in





21

Another possibility to experience social recognition within the peer group is to

dispose of sufficient economical resources. If the student cannot reach this goal

through a successful school leaving examination, alternative sources of income

such as a gainful employment need to be developed. For this purpose, we use

the monthly earnings of part-time work. Additionally, a dichotomous variable isformed that adapts value 1, if the respondent earns more than EUR 220 a

month. An assumptive hourly wage of around EUR 6,50 would mean the

persons work more than eight hours a week. About 28% of the respondents

state that they have part-time jobs for which they are paid. The average earning

is EUR 30 a month, whereas students from Sonderschulen (EUR 40,24) and

Hauptschulen (EUR 41,93) gain almost twice the sum than that of students from

Realschulen (EUR 26,56) and Gymnasium (EUR 23,96). Less than 5% of thestudents do a part-time job that earns them more than EUR 220 a month.

d. Variables of Urban Subculture Theory

The disorganization of the urban community was deduced by the evaluation of

the respondents. The students received lists with negatively rated occurrences

(e.g. violence, graffiti, drug sale) and were asked to state how often they had

observed those occurrences within their communities. The statements to each

single offence were combined to an index and subsequently trichotomised

(‘high’, ’middle’ and ’low’ disorganization). Low values indicate that the students

observe such offences frequently. 59% of the students can be assigned to the

middle category, around 7% to the low and 34 % to the high category. Divided

by school types, it becomes obvious that highly disorganized communities are

mostly inhabited by students from Hauptschulen, whereas students from

Gymnasium live primarily in communities with a low level of disorganization

(Figure 1).



22

High level of disorganization

Medium level of disorganization

Low level of disorganization

%

0

1 0

2 0

3 0

4 0

5

0

6 0

SonderschuleHauptschuleRealschuleGymnasium

Figure 1: Type of school by degree of urban community disorganization

To analyze the influence delinquent peers have on their friends, the friends’

extent of truancy was analyzed. The respondents were asked to state, how

many of their friends have ‘skipped school a day or more than a day’. Regarding

the whole sample, it can be noticed that around 40% of the students have more

than one friend who skipped school at least one day. Major differences between

the school types do not exist.

3. Strategies of analysis and method

First of all, we illustrate the bivariate association between the single elements of

the theories. Because most variables do not fulfil the requirements of Pearsons

Product Moment Correlation (Fröhlich and Becker 1971), we use Spearmans

Rank Order Correlation Coefficient. We make use of a binary-logistic regression

model in order to check the hypotheses. At the end, stepwise regressionmodels were performed (Meyer-Bahlburg 1969).



23

As the sample was realized in the form of a multistage clustered sampling

(urban community – school – class), standard errors of the parameters might be

biased. Assumingly, students of the same class share more common features

than in case of a real random sampling (Diekmann 1997; Oberwittler 2003b).

Thus, we have to deal with heteroscedasticity. To solve this problem, Huber(1981) and White (1980) proposed a procedure to calculate covariance matrices

of consistent heteroscedasticity to adjust for the mentioned bias. Corresponding

routines were implemented, for example in STATA or R. The latter is used for

the revised estimation of parameters of the binary-logistic model12.

V. Results

1. Prevalence of truancy in Cologne

More than a third of the respondents (35,2%) skipped school at least once

during their school career. Divided by gender, a higher percentage can be noted

for boys (37,7%) in comparison to girls (32,8%). 29% of the students have

skipped school within the year before the questioning took place. Again,

differences between sex can be detected (boys: 31,1%, girls: 26,9%). According

to our definition, 7,9% of all students can be called truants, thereof 10% of boysand 6% of girls. A division by age shows an almost continuous increase of

truancy between the age 13 and 17 (Figure 2). One has to be aware of

assuming a simple age effect, as with growing age the proportion of those

students increases who tend to become truants because of their former

educational career (e.g. forced to repeat a class grade). Additionally, 17 year

olds are a very specific group because they attend the 10th grade and 80% of

them had to repeat a school year at least once during their career.

12 To realize this, an implemented method by Frank Harrel was used “to adjust the variance-

covariance matrix of a fit from maximum likelihood or least squares, to correct forheteroscedasticity and for correlated responses from cluster samples ” (R Development CoreTeam 2003).





25

2. Family attachment and family structure

The test of the hypotheses of the social control theory concentrates on the

internalization of conventional values and norms formulated in section III.1.

Table 4 shows the bivariate correlations among the variables of attachment and

truancy controlled for school types (H1-H6).

Table 4: Correlation among variables of attachment and truancy by type of

school

Sonderschule Hauptschule Realschule Gymnasium Totalρ N ρ N ρ N ρ N ρ N

AttachmentRelationship to fatherassigned by schoolgrades

0,08 98 0,08 424 0,20*** 352 0,16*** 834 0,13*** 1708

Relationship tomother assigned byschool grades

0,16 102 0,22*** 434 0,03 359 0,14*** 844 0,14*** 1739

Relationship toteachers

–0,16 108 –0,11* 435 –0,14* 358 –0,17*** 840 –0,10*** 1741

DisciplineFrequent critisism byparents

0,15 104 –0,01 431 0,08 360 0,14*** 843 0,07** 1738

Frequent conflict withparents

0,26** 104 0,23*** 431 0,14** 360 0,12** 850 0,16*** 1733

Physical punishmentby father

0,08 102 0,03 431 0,15** 359 0,12*** 844 0,10*** 1736

Physical punishmentby mother

0,10 104 0,05 435 0,08 360 0,06 847 0,08** 1746

Supervision

Parental supervision –0,07 104 –0,27*** 437 –0,10 360 –0,24*** 847 –0,22*** 1748CommitmentEducationalinvestments

–0,18 109 –0,22*** 435 –0,05 359 –0,12** 842 –0,13*** 1745

InvolvementMembership in anassociation

–0,09 108 –0,02 438 0,07 362 –0,05 846 –0,05* 1754

BeliefLaw abiding behavior 0,03 102 –0,22*** 431 –0,24*** 356 –0,19*** 844 –0,18*** 1733

Rank Order Correlation ρ by Spearman; *: p<0,05; **: p<0,01; ***: p<0,001.

Not regarding differences between school types, the last column ‚Total‘

presents a weak or moderate bivariate correlation among all aspects relevant

for social control theory and truancy. Highly negative values are observed for

the variables of parental control and conventional behavior according to the law

(belief in social rules). Concerning the emotional attachment to parents, it might

be stated that students having a good relationship to either father or mother

show a lower risk of truancy.

Divided by school types, the results seem to be less compelling. The variables‘emotional attachment’, ‘way of upbringing’ and ‘supervision’ are of irregular



26

pattern. Focusing on students from the Gymnasium, significant coefficients are

identifiable for all variables – except for the mothers’ way of disciplining –which

run from high to very high. Strikingly, the fathers’ way of disciplining is more

closely related to truancy than that of the mother.

The amount of interest (supervision) parents show for the activities of their

children reduces the risk of truancy for students of the Gymnasium and the

Hauptschule, but not for students of the Realschule.

The relationship to teachers (H1a) exerts a strong influence on truancy, apart

from students of the Sonderschule. The better this relationship is, the less the

extent of truancy. Unfortunately, with the data at hand we cannot identifycausality: Does a good student-teacher relationship decrease truancy or do

students develop a good relationship to their teachers because they attend

school regulary? Educational investment turns out to be another relevant factor,

at least for students from the Hauptschule and the Gymnasium.

Contrasting hypothesis H5, the participation in activities outside school exposes very little

influence on truancy. Regarding the whole sample, a weak significant relationship must be

confirmed which, however, loses its impact when regarded by school type.

More importantly, H6 finds empirical support. Apart from students of the

Sonderschule, the risk of truancy decreases significantly, if the respondents

claim to behave in accordance with common law. Coefficients for students of

Haupt- and Realschule are slightly stronger (-0,22 resp. –0,24) than those of

students from the Gymnasium (-0,19).

3. Socioeconomic Status, school achievement and alternativesconcerning school attendance

Hypothesis H7 assumes a positive correlation between the social status of the

parents and the achievement at school as a means for social recognition. A first

item indicating school achievement is the school type at time of interview. The

distribution of students across school types depends on the job prestige of the

parental home. It has been dichotomized in order to illustrate it more clearly

(table 5).



27

Table 5: Type of school by parental socioeconomic status (row percentage)

Parental socioeconomicstatus Sonderschule Hauptschule Realschule Gymnasium Total a

Rather high 0,7 10,2 18,6 70,5 974

Rather low13,3 40,5 24,3 21,9 721

Total a 103 391 356 845 1695

a The rows and columns titled „total“ represent the absolute number of cases.The

Χ

2 is 476,29 (df=3) and Cramers V is 0,53***.

The results stated in table 5 correspond to the findings from research on social

inequality (Baumert et al. 2002): A high significant Cramers’ V of 0,53 clearly

indicates a correlation between the parents’ social status and the school type. If

parents have a low prestige, the chance of attending a Sonderschule is 19times higher (13,3/0,7) than for students whose parents show a high prestige.

Additionally, students coming from households with a low parental job prestige

attend a Hauptschule four times as often. Also, students with a high parental

prestige show a probability to achieve a higher level of education three times

more often than students with a low parental prestige.

To measure school achievement, we use the arithmetic mean of the school

grade in German and the grade in mathematics within the last report, as well as

a dichotomous variable that indicates whether a respondent had to repeat a

school year once. On average, all respondents show a satisfactory school

grade (3,04) in both subjects. A statistically significant difference between

adolescents from parental homes with a rather high (2,91) and with a rather low

(3,16) prestige becomes obvious. Table 6 presents the correlation coefficients

among inadequate school achievement, repeating a class grade in the past,

and the social prestige of the parents. The proportion of adolescents whose

school achievement has been assessed as inadequate in at least one subject

amounts to 10,0% within the high-prestige group, whereas the lower-prestige

group shows a proportion of 15,1%. Adolescents who come from parental

homes with a high social prestige experience a probability that is lowered by

37%13 to fail a class at least once. Similar results can be claimed for the

13 As a measure of association for dichotomous, categorical characteristics, the Odds Ratio is

listed within the last column of Table 6. The probability in percentages of a particular occurrenceto happen (in this case: inadequate achievement) within the group that has been coded 1 (inthis case: ‘rather high’ prestige of job) follows the equation (OR-1)

·

100.



28

variable repeating a school year. Adolescents from homes with low social status

need to repeat a class 1,6 times more often than their classmates from the

reference group (29,8% versus 21,1%).

Table 6: Academic achievement by parental socioeconomic status

(row percentage)

Inadequate achievements Repeating a school yearParentalsocioeconomicstatus No Yes Total No Yes Total

N % N % % N % N % %

Rather high 871 90,0 97 10,0 100,0 765 78,9 205 21,1 100,0

Rather low 602 84,9 107 15,1 100,0 506 70,2 215 29,8 100,0

Phi=0,08*** Odds Ratio=0,63** Phi=0,10*** Odds Ratio=0,63***Rank Order Correlation ρ by Spearman;*: p<0,05; **: p<0,01; ***: p<0,001.

While hypothesis H7a assumes a general relationship between poor school

achievement and the need to find alternative ways of aquiring economic wealth

and social recognition outside school, hypothesis H8 specifies these

alternatives. In this context, we assume a strong need for youngsters to receive

recognition from their peers. If there is no possibility to fulfil these needs through

a good school achievement, students look for alternatives outside the schoolsystem. Referring to the theoretical discussion, we suppose that the social

recognition from the peers and the employment of the students are such

alternatives.

It is noticeable that the average monthly income decreases with the school

level, those differences however do not appear to be significant. The monthly

income of the truants is above average among all different school types: Themore time a student spends on part-time work, the more likely he is to become

a truant. There is one special characteristic about truants: the more prestigious

the school type, the higher the average monthly income. One possible

explanation for that may be that students from the Gymnasium get a higher

income than students from other school types, because they have more

advanced skills and therefore are more qualified.

Table 7 presents the correlation coefficients among the remaining indices for

educational achievement and the alternatives to a school career.



29

Poor educational achievement is associated with frequent contact with peers

and with frequent meetings in public places. A relationship to part-time work

cannot be identified. Repeating a school year is rather strongly correlated with

all four educational alternatives.

Table 7: Correlation between employment status, frequency of meetingfriends and academic achievement

Grade point average Inadequateacademicachievement

Repeating a schoolyear

ρ N ρ N ρ NFrequency of meeting friends 0,17*** 1749 0,13*** 1749 0,15*** 1764Meeting friends in public 0,15*** 1783 0,11*** 1783 0,12*** 1799Employment income 0,02 1667 0,05* 1778 0,09*** 1683Time consuming employment 0,08 1667 0,06* 1801 0,14*** 1683


Finally, hypothesis H7b claims that students are more likely to skip school, as

the chances increase in receiving social and economic resources outside of

school. Referring to all school types, table 8 indicates a significant positive

correlation between both, truancy and frequently contacting peers, and truancy

and meeting peers in public.

H7b is confirmed in connection to gainful employment for students from the

Gymnasium, the Realschule and the Hauptschule: the more time a student

spends on part-time work, the higher the frequency of truancy. Remarkably, the

wage students from Hauptschulen gain does not state a significant connection

to truancy, although the contact to peers has an impact on the latter. Students

from Hauptschulen may possibly strive for the acceptance of their peers more

than other students do.

Table 8: Correlation between employment status, frequency of meetingfriends and truancyFrequency ofmeeting friends

Meeting friends inpublic

Employment income Time consumingemployment

ρ N ρ N ρ N ρ NSonderschule 0,18 100 0,16 104 0,15 100 0,22 100Hauptschule 0,12* 427 0,20*** 439 0,03 410 0,03 410Realschule 0,22*** 358 0,14** 361 0,17** 337 0,21*** 337Gymnasium 0,16*** 831 0,13*** 846 0,17*** 787 0,16*** 787Total 0,20*** 1716 0,17*** 1750 0,12*** 1634 0,13*** 1634




30

There is an obvious and highly significant correlation between educational

achievement and truancy. The strongest relationship can be identified between

truancy and repeating classes (ρ=0,17***), followed by inadequate educational

achievement (ρ=0,14***).

4. The influence of urban subcultures

The following section deals with the influence of urban contexts on truancy. To

realize this approach, an index was formed based on different items of

subjective perception that represents the extent of disorganization within a

urban community – lower values indicate a higher extent of disorganization.

Hypothesis H9 claims that adolescents living in disadvantaged communitiescontact delinquent peers on a regular base. Thus, the students were asked how

many of their friends skip school. Table 9 shows the first part of the hypotheses

to be empirically relevant. A rank correlation coefficient of –0,32 in total can be

identified. Interestingly, there is hardly any variation between the four different

school types.

Table 9: Correlation between disorganization of the urban community andtruancy within the peer group (left table); Correlation between truancywithin the peer group and individual truancy (right table)

Disorganization of urbancommunity and truancywithin the peer group

Truancy within the peergroup and individualtruancy

ρ N ρ NSonderschule –0,34*** 118 Sonderschule 0,38*** 107Hauptschule –0,31*** 439 Hauptschule 0,36*** 439Realschule –0,32*** 367 Realschule 0,26*** 361Gymnasium –0,30*** 862 Gymnasium 0,30*** 845Total –0,32*** 1786 Total 0,32*** 1752


The correlation between the prevalence of truancy among peers and individual

truancy shown in table 9 is obvious. The more the peers skip school, the higher

the risk of individual truancy. Hypothesis H9 is thus fully confirmed.

5. Multivariate data analysis

To analyze the impact the variables of each theory have on truancy, we chose a

stepwise binary regression model – including groups of variables linked to the

theoretical assumptions (table 10). The first group of variables presents



31

standard demographic variables that are not connected to any specific theory.

The beta coefficients and their standard errors are quoted. Percentage effects

are calculated with the help of the following transformation: (exp(ß)-1)100.

The cumulative inclusion of each variable group follows the same structure

presented in the theoretical part. Model 2a implies the theoretical assumptions

of the social control theory of Sampson and Laub (1993): attachment to the

family, parents style of discipline/bringing up and lack of supervision14. Model 2b

contains the remaining dimensions of Hirschi attachment to teachers,

commitment, involvement and belief. Variables of the anomie theory are

included in three steps15. First we affiliate the influence of part-time work (model

3a), followed by inadequate school grades (model 3b) and the frequency of

contact with peers (model 3c). Finally in model 4, effects described by the urban

subculture theory were included (desorganization of urban community and

peers playing truant). To avoid an ’overfitting’ of the model, we reduced the

included variables to those being most relevant to test theoretical assumptions.

The relative explained variance of each model in comparison to model 1 is

shown in the last line of table 10.

To improve the comparability between the different models, we kept the numberof cases constant. Excluding missing values, the total number of responding

students for the multivariate analysis is 1563. With that, the original sample is

reduced by 14%. Because the variable “part-time work” contained a large

number of missing values, we created a new category “no answer” to avoid a

further reduction of valid cases.

Model 1, the zero model, controls for sex, class grade and type of school. Boys

skip classes more than girls. Students attending the Hauptschule show thehighest risk of truancy.

In Model 2a and 2b variables from social control theory were included.

Obviously, the explained variance from model 1 to model 2 is rising (+15%).

Relevant predictors are “parental style of upbringing” (–77%) and “parental

14 The two variables ‘relationship to father’ and ‘relationship to mother’ were combined to the

variable ‚relationship to parents’. In a similar way the variable ‚physical punishment by parents’was formed. 15 Characteristics of the parents’ social status were not considered here as our hypotheses do

not claim a direct relationship between parents’ social status and truancy of the children.



32

supervision” (-50%). The other factors “attachment to teachers”, “commitment to

school success”, “belief in social rules”, and “involvement” explain in

comparison to model 1 about 11,4%. Notably, the factors “belief in social rules”

and “attachment to teachers” reduce the risk of truancy by about 42% and 25%

respectively.

The first part of the empirical analysis within the anomie theory does not reveil

important variables for the explanation of truancy (+ 1,6% explained variance).

An indicator for an alternative way to reach economic wealth alongside a school

career was to do a part-time job. To measure the intensity of work, we used the

average monthly income and created a dichotomous variable (less or more than

220 Euros a month). Part-time jobs have no significant effect on truancy. Wecan draw another conclusion, if we take a look at the school achievement. If

students report at least one inadequate school grade on the school report, their

risk of becoming a truant rises by about 127%. The result for students who

already repeated a year in their school career are even broader (+206%). In

model 3c, we included the frequency of contact to peers. Students meeting their

friends every day show a significantly higher risk of truancy (+123%) than those

with less appointments. In comparison to the results of bivariate analysis, we

can recognize a strong difference between students from the Gymnasium and

other types of school: The inclusion of the variable “frequency of contact to

peers” reduces the beta coefficient for students attending the Gymnasium.



33

Table 10: Binary logistic regression model of the factors influencing truancy

Model 1 Model 2a Model 2b Model 3a Mo β Se β se β se β se β

Constant –3,13** 1,15 –2,47* 1,24 0,92 1,38 1,36 1,42 0,08Sex –0,45* 0,20 –0,57** 0,22 –0,51* 0,23 –0,45 0,23 –0,41Class grade 0,18 0,13 0,16 0,13 0,12 0,14 0,07 0,14 0,17

Sonderschule –0,97* 0,49 –1,08* 0,53 –1,00 0,56 –0,92 0,57 –1,04Hauptschule Reference GroupRealschule –1,13*** 0,28 –1,19*** 0,32 –1,35*** 0,31 –1,33*** 0,32 –1,29Gymnasium –1,25*** 0,23 –1,17*** 0,24 –1,34*** 0,27 –1,30*** 0,27 –0,94

Social Control TheoryRelationship to the parents 0,10 0,11 0,03 0,11 0,01 0,11 –0,04Frequent conflicts with parents 0,57*** 0,12 0,53*** 0,13 0,54*** 0,13 0,53Frequent physical punishment by parents 0,06 0,15 0,12 0,15 0,07 0,16 0,05Parental supervision –0,70*** 0,11 –0,61*** 0,11 –0,62*** 0,12 –0,68

Relationship to teachers –0,29* 0,14 –0,30* 0,14 –0,28

Educational investments –0,25 0,16 –0,26 0,16 –0,23Law abiding behavior –0,54*** 0,12 –0,53*** 0,12 –0,60Membership in an association –0,72 0,48 –0,71 0,47 –0,57

Anomie TheoryNo time consuming employment Reference GroupTime consuming employment 0,80 0,43 0,49Missing employment information 0,57 0,40 0,50

Inadequate academic achievement 0,82Repeating a class 1,12

Frequency of contact to friends

Urban Subculture TheoryDisorganization of urban community Truancy within the peer group



34

N 1563 1563 1563 1563 1563Nagelkerke R2 0,07 0,22 0,28 0,29 0,34Likelihood Ratio 45,84 148,73 193,99 199,54 235,8DF 5 9 13 15 17 Improvement in comparison to Model 1(in percentage points)

– 15,0 11,4 1,6 7,3

*: p<0,05; **: p<0,01; ***: p<0,001.



35

Finally, variables of the urban subculture theory were entered in model 4. We

analyzed the influence of the urban community and of delinquent peers on

truancy. Both variables are highly significant. The less disorganized the urban

community, the less the risk of truancy (-46%). There is a remarkably outstanding

positive effect of peers’ truancy on individual behavior. The risk of truancy rises byabout +907%, if the student is in contact to peers who are skipping classes. Only

these two variables raise the explained variance by about 26%. Because of that

other variables loose their explanatory power. On the one hand, students who

have contact to peers missing classes quite often mention conflicts with their

parents. On the other hand, students with deviant peers experience a lack of

parental supervision. School factors still strongly affect truancy. Only the

relationship to teachers looses some explanatory power.

What conclusions can we draw from this analysis following the theoretical

assumptions in Chapter III? Relevant dimensions of the social control theory are

parental way of up bringing (H2, +54%), lack of supervision (H3, -40%) and belief

in conventional goals (H6, -37%). Only the school grades are significant variables

of the anomie theory, even if H7 is not presuming a direct effect on truancy. We

also tested the importance of alternative ways besides a school career to reach

economic wealth and social recognition. According to this, students with contact to

peers playing truant show a high risk of truancy (H8, +62%).

Both variables of the urban subculture theory indicate a particularly strong

influence on truancy (H9). The social control theory also shows empirical

confirmation. Parental supervision and the belief in social rules especially reduce

the risk of truancy. We could not find any empirical support for the assumption of

the anomie theory that low resources predict truancy. This result is still confirmed,

even if we control for the type of school (results are not shown).

VI. DiscussionIt was our goal to analyze the prevalence of truancy in the city of cologne on the

one hand and to analyze predictors using classical theories of deviant behavior on

the other hand. More than a third (35,1%) of all students reported to have skipped



36

school at least once in their whole school career. 7,9% of the students attending

grade 8th to 10th can be defined as truants, 10% of the boys and 6% of the girls.

We also found a relationship between class grade, age and truancy: The higher

the class grade and age, the higher the prevalence of truancy. Still, neither sex nor

class grade have a significant effect on truancy in the multivariate model. Moreobvious is the steep incline among the different school types. Students attending

the Hauptschule skip classes most often (14,5%), followed by students from the

Sonderschule with 8,6%, students from the Realschule (6,1%) and finally students

from the Gymnasium with 4,7%. Truancy is a phenomenon of the less skilled

school types.

Three classical theories of deviant behavior were used to explain truancy: thesocial control theory, the anomie theory and the theory of urban subcultures.

Summarizing the results, we can say that hypotheses of all three theories found

empirical validation. Therewith, truancy is a type of deviant behavior based on

weak bonding to conventional institutions and groups, on low access to legitimate

means for reaching a higher educational attainment and on an affiliation to

unconventional subcultures and peer groups.

Still not all of the hypotheses found empirical validation. Taking a look at social

control theory, we can identify three factors as relating to truancy: inadequate

parental upbringing, weak parental supervision and poor internalization of

conventional norms and values by the student (belief in social rules). Further

studies should find out if a weak bonding to the parents has an influence on

skipping school for students from all different school types. Nevertheless, we could

find a strong relationship between truancy and a weak bonding to the parents for

the students from the Gymnasium. For students attending other school types, the

pattern is more inconsistent. The results of the binary regression analysis show

that it is less important for the explanation of truancy whether students rate their

relationship to the parents in a good or a bad way. The aspects of parental control

mentioned by Sampson and Laub (1993) – type of upbringing and supervision –

have a strong influence on truancy, however. Therefore, direct parental control is

more important than indirect control as described by Hirschi.



36

Also, the dimensions commitment and involvement are only weakly associated

with truancy. Commitment signifies the intensity of investments in conventional

goals. Involvement describes the participation in conventional activities (sports

group, volunteering activities etc.). Only bivariate analysis shows a connection

between truancy and investments in school career. Involvement appears to haveno effect on truancy at all.

Like the social control theory, hypotheses deduced from the anomie theory could

only partly find empirical support. We can definitely say that all students skip

school less if they show a good school performance. This result is consistent for all

three indicators of school performance: School grades, repeating a year and the

type of school attended. In this respect, especially students who have noopportunities to get recognition through successful performance turn their back on

school. Also a limited opportunity to reach a valuable school diploma giving the

chance to achieve a good position in the job market in the future – and therefore,

the opportunity to reach a high status and economic wealth – may induce truancy.

A second point in the anomie theory is focused on the relation between the

socioeconomic status of the parents and school achievement. The parents’ social

status influences all three indicators of school performance. A third element of

anomie theory emphasizes the importance of social recognition and means to fulfil

conventional goals that are located outside of school. The current study defines

the gainful employment and the quest for social recognition within the peer group

as such alternatives. In fact, truants dispose of an average monthly income which

is higher than the earnings of students that do not or only occasionally skip school.

The multivariate data analysis does not show these differences to be significant.

However, it can be stated that truants meet their friends at outdoor places nearly

every day. The close relationship to peers deliberately carried out without parental

surveillance fits the results of social control theory that parental supervision is

very important.

Following the subculture theory, a close relationship between the subjectively

perceived quality of the local environment and truancy can be identified. As a

matter of fact: The more disorganized the local environment is perceived to be the

more distinct the truancy. Furthermore, deviant peers play an important role as



36

they – according to the theory of differential associations – convey deviant values

and norms. In disorganized communities, the adolescent is more likely to be in

touch with peers who do not attach importance to a regular school attendance and

thus offer different options to achieve social recognition than regular school

attendance.

According to the results of our study, the three agents of socialization – family,

school and peers – offer the most explanatory power for truancy. Although each of

these contexts is almost independent, still all of them exert a direct influence on

truancy. There is not only one dominant risk factor, we have to consider many

factors that belong to different societal systems. Consequently, it seems

misleading to assume that one decisive factor causes truancy. We should insteadthink of cumulative processes among the different areas of socialization that cause

students to become truants through a gradual process.

The current study shows two deficits which can only be overcome by further

analyses. On the one hand, we tried to determine the characteristics of social

situations that increase the risk of truancy. It is probable though, that the students’

individual and psychological characteristics need to be considered as well (school

phobia, low self-control, problems while growing up). On the other hand,

longitudinal studies are needed which help to explain the causal interaction of the

features identified in this study. Poor educational achievement or the orientation

towards deviant peers might also be a consequence of truancy.

In spite of these deficits, some useful ways to reduce truancy might be deduced

from our findings. First of all, an accurate control of the students presence at

school is important. Students need to know that even skipping just one lesson will

be registered by the school. Parents should be informed immediately of the

unauthorized school absence of their children. Educational matters should be

demonstrated in a more appealing way, so that parents become more engaged in

the school life of their children. This is especially fundamental for parents who do

not put a high value on educational attainment.



36

Teachers should talk to truants without stigmatizing them. During lessons, the

students social abilities should be strengthened. It should become a matter of

discussion if curriculum should be modified so that also students with poor skills

are satisfied. This is an important issue, especially for students of the Hauptschule

(cp. also Tillmann et. al. 2000: 301 et sqq.). Poor school grades and the enforcedrepetition of a class grade seem to increase the cases of truancy. Truants belong

to peer groups with a widespread delinquency in many cases. Thus, it is useful to

weaken the connections truants hold to these groups by offering opportunities to

establish different social relationships.



36

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Appendix

Table 11: Description of variables

MissingN N % MIN MAX SD AM

Truancy (periods) 1747 77 4,2 0 92 6,66 1,82Frequent truancy 1763 61 3,3 0 1 0,27 0,08Sex (m=0, w=1) 1815 9 0,5 0 1 0,50 0,54Class grade 1808 16 0,9 8 10 0,81 8,93Relationship to father assigned by grades 1759 65 3,6 1 6 1,37 2,25Relationship to mother assigned by grades 1793 31 1,7 1 6 1,07 1,83Frequent criticism by parents 1794 30 1,6 1 4 0,98 2,06Frequent conflicts with parents 1787 37 2,0 1 4 0,96 2,27Physical punishment by father 1792 32 1,8 1 4 0,67 1,27Physical punishment by mother 1802 22 1,2 1 4 0,60 1,22Parental supervision 1803 21 1,2 1 4 0,83 3,44Relationship to teachers 1802 22 1,2 1 4 0,83 2,98Educational investments 1805 19 1,0 1 4 0,73 3,10Membership in association 1813 11 0,6 0 1 0,32 0,12Law abiding behavior 1789 35 1,9 1 4 0,96 2,95Parental socioeconomic status 1695 129 7,1 1 4 1,02 2,79Grade point average 1801 23 1,3 1 6 0,85 3,04Inadequate achievement 1801 23 1,3 0 1 0,33 0,12Repeating a school year 1819 5 0,3 0 1 0,44 0,26Employment income (in Euro) 1688 136 7,5 0 1022,58 86,24 30,06Time consuming employment 1688 136 7,5 0 1 0,21 0,04Frequency of contact to friends 1769 55 3,0 0 1 0,47 0,34Meeting friends in public 1804 20 1,1 0 1 0,50 0,44Disorganization of urban community 1795 29 1,6 0 2 0,58 1,28

Truancy within the peer group 1811 13 0,7 0 1 0,49 0,40

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