Factors that inhibit Chinese junior high school students' unwillingness to attend school

The purpose of the present study was to investigate students' wish to be absent from school and factors related to the unwillingness to attend school among junior high school students in China. A questionnaire was completed by 1,230 junior high school students (grades 7-9), including 630 males and 593 females (plus 13 of unidentified gender) in Shanghai, Beijing, Xinxiang, and Lanzhou, People's Republic of China. The major results were as follows : More than half the students wanted to be absent from school, although none of them had officially been reported as non-attending. Adjustment to teachers was reported to be a more important determinant than adjustment to peers in inhibiting the students' unwillingness to attend school.