The identification of psychiatric disorders in children who fail to attend school: a cluster analysis of a non-clinical population

Abstract

SYNOPSISInterviews were conducted with parents of 100 children taken to a ‘School attendance committee’, because of persistent failture to attend School. Clinical assessmen t of the attendance problem was carried out so that children were categorized as ‘School refusers’ (N = 24), ‘truants’ (N =53), ‘both refusers and truants’ (N =9), or as ‘neither’ (N =14). Any ICD-9 psychiatirc disorder was separately identified. Cluster analysis of information collected in a standard way indicated that there was a group of children with the features of ‘School refusal’ who often had genralized neurotic disorders as well and who were mostly girls, another group with the feature of ‘truancy’ all of whom had conduct disorders who were mainly boys, and a third cluster of childrsen who were usually ‘truants’ but less often psychiatrically disturbed. The study provided evidence for the existence of School refusal with and without generalized neurotic disturbance in a non-clinical population.