School truancy and welfare receipt dynamics in early adulthood: A longitudinal study
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/26338076231202047 |
| Author | Patricia Collingwood,Lorraine Mazerolle,Stephanie M. Cardwell |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
School truancy and welfare
receipt dynamics in early
adulthood: A longitudinal study
Patricia Collingwood
ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life
Course, University of Queensland
Lorraine Mazerolle
School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Australia
Stephanie M. Cardwell
University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Australia
Abstract
School truancy is associated with many negative life outcomes, includ ing violent, property, and
drug offending, lower levels of education, and subsequently lower status and lower-paying jobs.
These negative life outcomes are also related to future reliance on government welfare pay-
ments. This research sought to identify how high school truancy affects young people’s welfare
receipt dynamics in emerging adulthood. It uses longitudinal data from a nationally representa-
tive household panel survey (the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey)
to estimate the effect of truancy on young people’s likelihood of receiving government-paid cash
transfers in emerging adulthood. We find that young people who are truant are over four times
more likely to receive cash transfers than young people who are not truant. Findings also show
that the extent of truancy does not impact the likelihood of welfare receipt, even when differ-
entiating between infrequent and problem truants. We concludewith some comment son tru-
ancy’s role in welfare dynamics.
Keywords
Truancy, life course, adolescence, welfare receipt, socioeconomic status
Date received: 14 March 2023; accepted: 30 August 2023
Corresponding author:
Patricia Collingwood, ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course, University of
Queensland.
Email: patricia.collingwood@gmail.com
Article
Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 56(4) 441–455
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/26338076231202047
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