Psycho- Social Determinants of Truant Behaviour among Secondary School Students.

Abstract

This study investigated the combined and separate contributions of child, family, school, society, and government factors to truant behaviour of secondary school students in Oyo State. Five hundred and forty students were selected from the three senatorial districts of Oyo State through multi-stage and purposive sampling techniques. Four validated instruments were used to gather data from the subjects. Multiple regression analysis and t-test statistic were use to analyse the data. The findings indicated that all the independent variables taken together correlated significantly with the dependent variable .The results also revealed that the five independent variables jointly accounted for 66.0% of the observed variance in truant behaviour .The results also indicated that each of the five independent variables contributed to the prediction of the dependent variable. Government variable made the highest contribution to the prediction of truant behaviour followed by school; child; society and family factors in that order of potency level. Based on these findings, the study recommended that counselling and educational psychologists give adequate consideration to these five aetiological factors in their attempts to develop workable intervention strategies that would combat truant behaviour of students.

Ife Psychologia Vol.13(1) 2005: 188-199