Prevalence of truancy among school-going adolescents in three South Asian countries: association with potential risk and protective factors

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe examined the prevalence and evaluated the associated risk and protective factors of adolescent school truancy through sex-stratified models by analysing 7562 adolescent data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) of three South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The prevalence of school truancy was 26.6%. The highest truancy was found in Bangladesh (37%), followed by Pakistan (24.7%) and Afghanistan (14.7%). Male adolescents had a 2.05 times higher relative risk ratio (RRR) [95% CI: 1.29, 3.28] of having truancy of ≥ 3 days (last month) than the female respondents. Respondents of older age, bullied, and injured had significantly higher RRR of truancy of ≥ 3 days than their counterparts. Household food insecurity also significantly increased male and female students’ RRR of school truancy. However, peer and high parental support significantly reduced the RRR of 1–2 days and ≥ 3 days of truancy of male and female students.

Keywords

• Truancy
• Bangladesh
• Afghanistan
• Pakistan
• Adolescents
• Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS)