Leaving the Yeshiva High School and losing parental support: the case of male ultra-orthodox dropouts in Israel.

The current study was designed to investigate an ignored aspect in the scientific literature on dropout students. It focused on the negative effect of losing parental support among dropout youth who belong to closed religious communities, specifically ultra-Orthodox dropout youth in Israel. The main goal of the study was to investigate parents’ contribution to the well-being of dropouts by examining parental support and (positive and negative) parental conditional regard. This was carried out by comparing two groups of students: youth at risk of dropping out who were still learning in the yeshiva high school, and youth who had already dropped out. The participants included 130 males (69 dropouts) aged 14–21 years (M = 17.58, SD=1.71) who completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. The findings indicated lower levels of parental support and higher levels of parental conditional regard among dropouts compared to youth at risk for dropping out. Parental conditional negative regard was found to be a significant risk factor for the youths’ well-being. The findings raise both theoretical and practical aspects when dealing with dropout youth from closed religious groups and point to the unique risk factors and family dynamics among dropouts in the closed Jewish ultra-Orthodox community.