Truancy among School-Going Adolescents in Malaysia and Its Associated Factors: Findings from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022
-
Nazirah Alias
,
Wan-Fei Khaw
,
Nur Hamizah Nasaruddin
,
Leeann Tan
,
Eida Nurhadzira Muhammad
,
S Maria Awaluddin
,
Mohd Ruhaizie Riyadzi
,
Tania Gayle Robert Lourdes
,
Thamil Arasu Saminathan
,
Kuang Kuay Lim
Abstract
Background: Truancy is correlated with variety of unfavorable outcomes that can negatively impact adolescents’ development and well-being. We investigated the prevalence of truancy and its associated factors among school-going adolescents in Malaysia in 2022.
Methods: We used secondary data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022. It is a cross-sectional study with a multistage stratified cluster sampling study design including 32,290 students aged 13 to 17 years old. It utilized the self-administered questionnaire from the validated Malaysian Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS). The associations between the truancy and its associated factors were examined using multivariate logistic regression, a complex sample analysis with sampling weightage.
Results: The prevalence of truancy was 25.6% (95% CI=24.25, 26.98). In the multivariate analysis, truancy was significantly associated with older age groups (P<0.001), adolescents with separated/ divorced/ widowed parents (P<0.001), those with current any tobacco product use (P<0.001), those with ever drug use (P<0.001), those who have been physically attacked (P<0.001) and being bullied (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Gender, age, parent marital status, and adolescents with risk behavior were associated with truancy. This information may provide evidence for the implementation of effective prevention and intervention strategies to reduce truancy among these school-going adolescents.
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25. Shah SA, Abdullah A, Aizuddin AN, et al (2012). Factors contributing to truancy among malay secondary school students in Malaysia. ASEAN J Psychiatr, 13 (2): 128-37.
26. Mahmud NA, Awaluddin SM, Yoep N, et al (2019). Association of truancy and health risk behaviours among school-going ad-olescents in Malaysia. Open J Soc Sci, 7 (7): 228–37.
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29. Nik Jaafar NR, Tuti Iryani MD, Wan Sal-wina WI, et al (2013). Externalizing and internalizing syndromes in relation to school truancy among adolescents in high-risk urban schools. Asia Pac Psychia-try, 5 Suppl 1:27-34.
30. Ruzyanei NJ, Salwina WW, Iryani T (2009). Psychosocial factors influencing truancy in high risk secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian J Psychiatr, 18 (2):14-21.
31. Suleman Q, Hussain I, Kayani AI (2017). Factors contributing to truancy among secondary school students in Karak dis-trict, Pakistan. J Educ Pract, 8 (25):65-74.
32. Yusoff F, Sahril N, Rasidi NM, et al (2014). Illicit drug use among school-going ado-lescents in Malaysia. Asia Pac J Public Health, 26(5 Suppl):100S-7S.
33. Gastic B (2008). School truancy and the disciplinary problems of bullying vic-tims. Educ Rev, 60 (4): 391–404.
2. Reid K (2002). Truancy and Schools. London and New York: Routledge Taylor, Fran-cis Group.
3. Shong TS, Ah SH (2016). The Untold Tru-ancy Stories: A Case Study in Malaysia (Truancy among school children in Ma-laysia). The Malaysian Journal of Social Ad-ministration, 12: 76-99.
4. Pengpid S, Peltzer K (2017). Prevalence, demographic and psychosocial corre-lates for school truancy among students aged 13–15 in the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states. J Child Adolesc Ment Health, 29 (3): 197–203.
5. Seidu AA, Ahinkorah, BO, Darteh EKM, et. al. (2019). Prevalence and correlates of truancy among in-school adolescents in Ghana: evidence from the 2012 Global School-Based Student Health Survey. J Child Adolesc Ment Health, 31 (1): 51–61.
6. Onyeaka H, Kugbey N, Ayanore M, et al (2020). Prevalence and correlates of tru-ancy among school-going adolescents in three West African countries. J Hum Be-hav Soc Environ, 30 (7): 936–49.
7. Pengpid S, Peltzer K (2020). High preva-lence of school truancy in a national sample of in-school adolescents in Ku-wait: Internalizing, externalizing and so-cial risk factors. J Hum Behav Soc Environ, 30 (6): 687–94.
8. Seidu AA (2019). Prevalence and correlates of truancy among school-going adoles-cents in Mozambique: Evidence from the 2015 Global School-Based Health Survey. ScientificWorldJournal, 2019: 9863890.
9. Owusu DN, Ansah KO, Dey NEY, et al (2022). Bullying and truancy amongst school-going adolescents in Timor-Leste: results from the 2015 Global School-Based Health Survey. Heliyon, 8 (1): e08797.
10. Pengpid S, Peltzer K (2019). Prevalence of truancy in a national sample of school going adolescents in Laos is associated with potential risk and protective fac-tors. Child Youth Serv Rev, 107: 104521.
11. Institute for Public Health (2012). The Na-tional Health and Morbidity Survey: Malaysia Global School-Based Student Health Survey 2012. Kuala Lumpur: Institute for Public Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia.
12. Institute for Public Health (2017). National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017: Adolescent Health Survey. Kuala Lumpur: Institute for Public Health, National In-stitutes of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia.
13. Vaughn MG, Maynard BR, Salas-Wright CP, et al (2013). Prevalence and correlates of truancy in the US: Results from a na-tional sample. J Adolesc, 36 (4): 767–76.
14. OECD (2019). PISA 2018 Results (Volume III): What School Life Means for Students’ Lives. Paris: OECD Publishing.
15. Mallett CA (2015). Truancy: It’s not about skipping school. Child Adolesc Social Work J, 33: 337–47.
16. Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention (2010). Truancy Prevention. Washington DC: Development Services Group, Inc.
17. Institute for Public Health (IPH) (2022). Technical Report National Health and Mor-bidity Survey (NHMS) 2022: Adolescent Health Survey. Malaysia: Institute for Pub-lic Health, National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia.
18. Kuay LK, Mahjom M, Awaluddin SM, et al (2023). Methodology of National Health and Morbidity Study (NHMS): Adoles-cent health, Malaysia 2022. Int J Public Health Res, 13 (2): 1694-1699.
19. Bursac Z, Gauss CH, Williams DK, et al (2008). Purposeful selection of variables in logistic regression. Source Code Biol Med, 3: 17.
20. Sperandei S (2014). Understanding logistic regression analysis. Biochem Med (Zagreb), 24 (1): 12-18.
21. Nathwani G, Shoaib A, Shafi A, et al (2021). Impact of COVID-2019 on school at-tendance problems. J Glob Health, 11: 03084.
22. Zvolensky MJ, Garey L, Rogers AH, et al (2020). Psychological, addictive, and health behavior implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Behav Res Ther, 134: 103715.
23. Van Lancker W, Parolin Z (2020). COVID-19, school closures, and child poverty: a social crisis in the making. Lancet Public Health, 5 (5): e243–e244.
24. Maynard BR, Vaughn MG, Nelson EJ, et al (2017). Truancy in the United States: Ex-amining temporal trends and correlates by race, age, and gender. Child Youth Serv Rev, 81: 188–96.
25. Shah SA, Abdullah A, Aizuddin AN, et al (2012). Factors contributing to truancy among malay secondary school students in Malaysia. ASEAN J Psychiatr, 13 (2): 128-37.
26. Mahmud NA, Awaluddin SM, Yoep N, et al (2019). Association of truancy and health risk behaviours among school-going ad-olescents in Malaysia. Open J Soc Sci, 7 (7): 228–37.
27. Muula AS, Rudatsikira E, Babaniyi O, et al (2012). Prevalence and correlates for school truancy among pupils in grades 7-10: Results from the 2004 Zambia global school-based health survey. BMC Res Notes, 5: 48.
28. Ishak Z, Low SF (2013). Truancy among Malaysian students: An analysis based on ethnicity. J Teach Educ, 2 (2): 331-8.
29. Nik Jaafar NR, Tuti Iryani MD, Wan Sal-wina WI, et al (2013). Externalizing and internalizing syndromes in relation to school truancy among adolescents in high-risk urban schools. Asia Pac Psychia-try, 5 Suppl 1:27-34.
30. Ruzyanei NJ, Salwina WW, Iryani T (2009). Psychosocial factors influencing truancy in high risk secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian J Psychiatr, 18 (2):14-21.
31. Suleman Q, Hussain I, Kayani AI (2017). Factors contributing to truancy among secondary school students in Karak dis-trict, Pakistan. J Educ Pract, 8 (25):65-74.
32. Yusoff F, Sahril N, Rasidi NM, et al (2014). Illicit drug use among school-going ado-lescents in Malaysia. Asia Pac J Public Health, 26(5 Suppl):100S-7S.
33. Gastic B (2008). School truancy and the disciplinary problems of bullying vic-tims. Educ Rev, 60 (4): 391–404.
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| Issue | Vol 53 No 12 (2024) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| Absenteeism Truancy Adolescent Protective factor Malaysia | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Alias N, Khaw W-F, Nasaruddin NH, Tan L, Muhammad EN, Awaluddin SM, Riyadzi MR, Robert Lourdes TG, Saminathan TA, Lim KK. Truancy among School-Going Adolescents in Malaysia and Its Associated Factors: Findings from the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022. Iran J Public Health. 2024;53(12):2705-2713.
