fied or accepted as too ill to attend. This still includes those children who are absent with leave given by their parents or who are actually kept at home by their parents (Galloway (1982)). The definition of truancy can also be narrowed by Tyerman (1968), who reserves the term for children who are absent from school purely on their own initiative (Tyerman This is the definition adopted by Galloway (1985). However, Hersov (1977) goes still further dividing from truants, “school phobics” and school refusers, many of whom depending on how they are in turn defined will be absent on their own initiative. Since the term has been given different meanings by different writers, the literature cannot be regarded as dealing with an homogeneous subject. Conclusions reached in one study of truants cannot automatically be regarded as supported or disputed by conclusions reached in another. It is clear that care must first be taken to ensure that the same or at least a similar definition has been given to truancy. There is a large body of literature, going back at least into the last century seeking to explain truancy in terms of failings among children and their families (eg Kline, 1989; Healy, 1915). In the 1920’s, Burt (Tyerman, 1968) elaborated the first concept of “school phobia” by describing how some children stayed away from schools that had been used by them and their parents as air raid shelters during the great war. They associated school with fear of death and became “neurotic” when compelled to go there. During the 1930’s, there were the psychoanalytic theories of Broadwin (Tyerman, 1968), relating truancy to various complexes. These earlier theories were not long accepted, if at all. Broadwin can be criticised for having reasoned from premises that were by no means certain to conclusions that he made little attempt to verify by empirical research. Burt’s earliest concept of school p...
