School absenteeism has garnered growing attention in the media as well as by policymakers and in research (Strandler & Harling, 2023). Yet, studies on children’s and parents’ experiences of chronic school absence are still sparse. Children with prolonged school absence often face significant challenges, including mental health difficulties, social struggles, poor academic performance, and a higher prevalence of neuropsychiatric diagnoses (Forsell, 2020). Furthermore, chronic school absenteeism is linked to adverse long-term outcomes, such as unemployment, mental health problems, substance abuse, and other risk behaviours (SOU 2016:94). Studies on children’s own experiences of chronic school absence report feelings of loneliness, bullying, mental health struggles, and insufficient support from schools (Forsell, 2020; Åhslund, 2021). Parents, particularly mothers, frequently describe strained relationships with schools and significant stress in navigating fragmented support systems (Laurin & Andersson 2024; Laurin, 2023). Studies further highlight how children and parents grapple with guilt and shame while also facing a lack of understanding from their social environment (Laurin 2023; Connolly, Constable, and Mullally 2023; Dannow, Esbjørn, and Risom 2020). Research on school absence frequently examines individual, school-related, and social factors in isolation, despite their interconnections (Bodén, 2016). Furthermore, studies tend to focus on individual factors, while structural relations receive comparatively less attention (Ekstrand, 2015; Havik, Bru, & Ertesvåg, 2014), frequently relying on psychological explanatory models (Ekstrand, 2015). This study contributes to the international research discussion on school absence through a sociological analysis that centres on children's and parents’ experiences, focusing on how social class (class practices, dispositions and habitus) shapes the school refuser (known in Swedish as "home-sitters") trajectory.  
Sweden provides an interesting context for studying chronic school absence due to its comparatively strong welfare system, well-established legal framework, which holds municipalities and parents responsible for ensuring school participation, and the prohibition of homeschooling, which some families with school-absent children might have resorted to if possible. While national statistics on school absences are still lacking in Sweden, there is a growing emphasis on local-level measuring. Available data suggests a stark increase in chronic school absence, for example, a 50 per cent rise in municipal schools in Stockholm 2018-2024 (Svenska Dagbladet 2024).
Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology (Bourdieu 1996[1989]; 2020[2015]), this paper examines the process by which children become school refusers. The analysis focuses on mental and bodily self-transformation as well as the role of social class in this process. Inspired by Muriel Darmon's extension of Bourdieu's habitus concept in her study on how young girls become anorexic (Darmon 2016), the process of becoming a school refuser is analysed as a form of habitus formation.
The following research questions are addressed in the study:

1. What common characteristics define the development of children’s chronic school absence?
2. How do children’s and parents’ class dispositions and practices shape the children’s school absence?
3. In what ways does chronic school absence shape children’s practices, dispositions and perceptions of themselves and their surroundings?

In the study, interviews were conducted with children (4), mothers (24), and fathers (3) in Sweden to explore experiences of children's prolonged school absenteeism in compulsory education. The interviews, which had an average duration of one hour, explored the respondents' social backgrounds, their experiences with schooling and school absenteeism, their views on the value of schooling and education as well as their everyday lives during periods of school absence—either as school-absent children or as parents of school-absent children. The interviews took place between 2017 and 2021 and were conducted on-site and digitally for practical reasons and to prevent the spread of Covid-19. They were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The Swedish Ethical Review Authority approved the research. The study will be followed by a more extensive research project on chronic school absences in Sweden, conducted from 2025 to 2028. The research project will involve interviews with children, parents and school staff as well as observations of school-absent children, which is an essential method when studying habitus formation.

The study highlights commonalities in how children and parents described the process of children becoming school refusers. This process unfolded gradually in phases, during which children and parents developed new practices, and children underwent physical and mental self-transformation. Phase 1, “The Struggle”, begins with a socially difficult situation in school for the child, often lasting years. The child displays signs of school resistance, such as complaints about the school environment, sporadic truancy, or physical symptoms like headaches or stomach aches. The phase is characterised by conflict between children resisting school and parents striving to ensure attendance. Over time, resistance escalates as children express opposition stronger, both verbally and physically. This includes fiercely refusing school and bodily reactions such as vomiting when forced to attend, experiencing extreme fatigue, or feeling physically incapable of entering the school building. Parents persist in trying to get their children to school by, for example, emotional labour or physically forcing their children to school. Their persistence stems from a belief in the benefits of schooling and an awareness of compulsory education laws. Phase 2, “Withdrawal”, begins when parents decide to stop forcing school attendance, often due to the child’s extreme distress, such as suicidal thoughts or severe exhaustion. Parents prioritise their children’s mental health, allowing them to stay home, which temporarily alleviates some of the family tensions, though often creating tensions with the school. New ways of life enfold for both parents and children. The children spend almost all their time at home in social withdrawal and physically inactive, affecting both their mental state and physics. Phase 3: “Reevaluating School, Life and Identity”, involves parents and children reassessing their perspectives on education, identity and life in general and exploring alternative paths in life. Some children enrol in new schools, while others remain at home.

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