Citation

van der Woude LB, van der Stouwe T, Stams GJJM. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 2017; 73: 9-14.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.11.028

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The present study examined differences in risk factors for truancy and delinquency. Research questions were: (1) Which risk factors are significantly different between truants and delinquents? (2) Which risk factors make the strongest distinction between truancy and delinquency? Participants were Dutch adolescents (N = 365) who received a penal sanction in the Netherlands. 83% (n = 304) of them had violated the penal law, and 17% (n = 62) received the penalty for truancy. Differences in risk factors for truancy and delinquency were found for age and parental punishment. Binary logistic regression showed that only parental punishment retained its predictive effects when controlling for other differences. Truants experienced more parental punishment than delinquent adolescents. The present study shows that addressing dysfunctional home circumstances could be more important for truants, indicating that existing interventions do not differentiate enough between truants and delinquents.

Language: en