Truancy: How food insecurity, parental supervision, and other factors influence school attendance of adolescents in Seychelles

Truancy is identified as one of the key problems that school directors in Seychelles face,yet it has received little attention by the key stakeholders of education in the country. This study investigated the prevalence of truancy and its associated factors among in-school adolescents in Seychelles. Using data of 1,833 in-school adolescents from the 2015 Seychelles Global-based School Health Survey, the study employed descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression to model the factors associated with truancy. While the results show that the prevalence of truancy among in-school adolescents was 25.9%, gender differences were observed (28% males vs 24.4% females). In-school adolescents who experienced hunger (AOR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.60), consumed alcohol (AOR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.49,2.41), engaged in fight (AOR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.31, 2.12), smoked (AOR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.51, 2.77), were bullied (AOR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.10, 1.75), and experienced an attack (AOR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.20, 2.01) had higher odds of being truants. However, students whose parents checked what they did at their free time had lower odds of being truants (AOR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.61, 0.89). The findings, therefore, highlight the need for school authorities to ensure that school environments are free from physical fights, attacks and bullying. To reduce the level of truancy in Seychelles, schools should have strict measures to curtail the factors that predispose adolescents to this social problem. Parents should be encouraged to monitor their children at home so that they can identify any changes in their behaviour. The government of Seychelles and welfare institutions should consider hunger as a serious problem resulting in truant behaviour among in-school adolescents and provide welfare support to families with very low incomes. Finally, the government should implement truancy laws that will sanction truant students and their parents for allowing them to stay at home. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd