Bridging the Gap Among Professionals Who Address Youths With School Absenteeism: Overview and Suggestions for Consensus

Over decades of study, problematic school absenteeism in youths has been associated with diverse terms such as truancy, psychoneurotic truancy, school refusal, school phobia, and separation anxiety. Unfortunately, such disparity has led to lack of consensus regarding definition, assessment, and treatment for this population. This is especially problematic given that school absenteeism and dropout remain at crisis proportions. A brief historical overview is presented of the various terms used to define subtypes of absenteeism. Suggestions are then made for building consensus among psychologists, educators, and others who address these youths. These suggestions surround using a common definitional and assessment approach as well as designing treatment strategies that cover all youths with problematic absenteeism.