Dropout Syndromes: A Study of Individual, Family and Social Factors in Two Montreal High Schools

The author examines the reasons for students dropping out of school in the 1970s, based on a survey of students at two high schools within the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. The two schools came from contrasting family income areas of the city - Verdun High School and Westmount High School. There were twice as many dropouts from the lower income school (Verdun), but the higher income families were able to send their children with school difficulties to private schools, an alternative beyond the reach of the less affluent families. Students' I.Q. was not a major factor in the decision to drop out of school, but based on interviews with fifty dropouts the author observed that the most significant predictors of leaving school before completion were: parents' mental health; attitude towards school administration; father's character in student's eyes; skipping school regularly; frequency of being sick; difficulty with high school authority; and degree of closeness to father. The author concludes that family rather than the school was the major source of difficulty in the etiology of dropping out.

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

1976

141p.

en