Attributional style and school truancy

Abstract

Relatively little research has been directed toward exploring cognitive variables that may characterize students with poor school attendance. A handful of studies has examined school attendance in relation to locus of control, but none has explored its relationship to “attributional style”. This article presents the findings of a pilot study which compared a small sample of truants and non‐truants on locus of control and attributional style. The findings suggest that attributional style is a significant cognitive factor in explaining why some students play truant from school but others do not, even though they are under the influence of similar school conditions. Specifically, truants tended to explain failures as due to internal, stable and global factors, whereas non‐truants tended to explain failures as due to external, unstable and specific factors. On the other hand, truants tended to explain success as due to external, unstable and specific factors; whereas non‐truants tended to explain success as due to internal, stable and global factors.