Secondary school practitioners’ beliefs about risk factors for school attendance problems: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

School staff have an important role to play in identifying and assisting pupils who require additional support to regularly attend school, but their beliefs about risk factors might influence their decisions regarding intervention. This qualitative study investigated educational practitioners’ beliefs about risk factors for attendance problems. Sixteen practitioners from three secondary schools were interviewed via focus groups. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Practitioners identified risk factors related to the individual, their family, peers and school. Poor mental health was identified as a risk factor, but practitioners primarily focused on anxiety rather than other mental health problems like depression or behavioural disorders. The overall perception was that school factors were less important than individual, family and peer factors. Implications include a need for increased awareness of the role of school factors in attendance problems, focus on promoting positive peer and pupil-teacher relationships, and collaborative working between young people, families and schools.

KEYWORDS:

• School attendance
• school absence
• teachers
• school mental health
• qualitative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for the article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a PhD studentship awarded to KF by the University of Exeter Medical School, via the Wellcome Trust (grant no 107496/Z/15/Z).

Notes on contributors

Katie Finning

Katie Finning is a researcher in the Child Mental Health Research Group at the University of Exeter. Her research is focused on mental health in schools.

Polly Waite

Polly Waite is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, UK, and the Departments of Experimental Psychology & Psychiatry, University of Oxford. Her specific research interests are around the treatment of anxiety disorders in adolescents and supporting mental health in schools.

Kate Harvey

Kate Harvey is an Associate Professor of Health Psychology in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, UK.  Her primary research interest is in understanding children and family eating, and she has particular expertise in qualitative methodologies.

Darren Moore

Darren Moore is a Lecturer in Education at the University of Exeter. His research interests focus broadly on school mental health, ranging from social, emotional and mental health as a special educational need, its impact on school attendance and outcomes, to teachers mental health and wellbeing.

Becky Davis

Becky Davis was an MSc student at the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at the University of Reading, UK. Her primary research interest is in mental health in schools.

Tamsin Ford

Tamsin Ford is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of Exeter Medical School.  The group of researchers that she leads studies the effectiveness of services and interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, with a particular focus on schools.