Children with School Absenteeism: Comparing Risk Factors Individually and in Domains

ABSTRACT

This study investigated risk factors for school absenteeism in a sample of 983 children in elementary and lower secondary schools in Denmark, using administrative data on absenteeism measured in the year following risk factor measurement. Risk factors were measured by survey (children and teachers) and register data. Two methods of determining importance of risk factors were compared: individual risk factors versus four domains of risk factors (psychological problems, physical problems, school factors, and demographic and family factors). Significant individual risk factors were found in all four domains. When teacher-reports of the children’s psychological problems were used, psychological problems was the risk factor domain that predicted school absenteeism best and the school-related factors domain predicted worst. The results highlight the need to distinguish between single risk factors that identify groups of individuals with elevated risk of school absence and the detection of risk factor domains that better predict school absence.

KEYWORDS:

• School absenteeism
• elementary and lower secondary school
• risk factors
• predictors
• multivariate models

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The results are available upon request but are omitted to save space.

2 A supplemental analysis found that the relationship between teacher-assessed hyperactivity and school absence was reduced and became insignificant when controlling for conduct problems and socio-economic background. This suggests that the cause of the increased level of school absenteeism observed among children with high levels of hyperactivity is not the hyperactivity per se (Table 1), but related to the resources in the child’s family and co-occurring behavioral problems.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by TrygFonden, Denmark.