Who is allowed to stay at home during school hours? An analysis of school withdrawal

The rise of unexcused school absenteeism is an international phenomenon, and pupils with unexcused absenteeism are a highly heterogeneous group. Our study focuses on this heterogeneity by studying school withdrawal: absences not concealed from the parents, and which are attributable to there being little or no parental effort to get the pupil to school (passive school withdrawal) or to parental effort to keep the pupil at home (active school withdrawal). Our study of 644 pupils aged between 14 and 21 shows that both forms of school withdrawal are more prevalent among pupils with lower parental school involvement. Passive school withdrawal is more common among pupils from a single-parent family, and our findings also suggest that it occurs more often if the parents have a laissez-faire parenting style. Active school withdrawal is more prevalent amongst girls and students from a non-migrant background. In the conclusion, we elaborate on the implications of our findings for theory and practice.