Negative Social Experiences and Dropping Out of School

The purpose of this study was to test a prediction model of early withdrawal from school with a sample of 751 low SES boys with an emphasis on the role of peer-related variables. The model included early disruptiveness and academic performance as the main triggering factors of a chain of events that included social acceptance from peers, and association with deviant/dropout friends. The model also included socio-familial variables, as well as parental variables as covariates and as potential moderators. Results confirmed the power of early disruptiveness and early academic performance to predict dropout. However, the effect of these variables varied according to dropout age. Low social acceptance from classmates made no additional contributions in predicting the process of early school disengagement. However, affiliation with deviant/dropout friends did. No moderating effects for parenting variables were found. Socio-psychological processes involved in the trajectory leading early disruptive boys to drop out of school and the importance of targeting early disruptiveness and academic difficulties to prevent school dropout are stressed in the discussion.