Elementary absenteeism over time: A latent class growth analysis predicting fifth and eighth grade outcomes

Simon, Odelia; Nylund‐Gibson, Karen; Gottfried, Michael A.; Mireles‐Rios, Rebeca

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101822

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, a recent latent class growth analysis identified four distinct classes of absenteeism trajectories over time: low, high, decreasing, and increasing absenteeism. The first three of these (accounting for 78% of students) were highly stable from 1 st Grade onwards (equivalent to Year 2 in England), and the fourth was stable from 3 rd Grade onwards (Year 4 in England) (Simon et al, 2020). However, we are aware of no research that has explored the stability of authorized and unauthorized absence separately, and the findings presented here suggest that stability over time may be different for different types of absence.…”

Section: Within-person Temporal Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 66%

“…anxiety-based non-attendance) (Egger et al, 2003;Finning et al, 2020;Gubbels et al, 2019;Jones et al, 2009;Lereya et al, 2019;Vaughn et al, 2013). School is a central context for children's social, emotional and cognitive development, and attendance problems can negatively affect academic achievement while also increasing the risk of school dropout, drug and alcohol abuse, and adult unemployment (Attwood & Croll, 2014;Christle et al, 2007;Hancock et al, 2013;Henry & Huizinga, 2007;Simon et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Longitudinal pathways between emotional difficulties and school absenteeism in middle childhood: Evidence from developmental cascades

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emotional difficulties are associated with both authorized and unauthorized school absence, but there has been little longitudinal research and the temporal nature of these associations remains unclear. This study presents three-wave random-intercepts panel models of longitudinal reciprocal relationships between teacher-reported emotional difficulties and authorized and unauthorized school absence in 2,542 English children aged 6 to 9 years old at baseline, who were followed-up annually. Minor differences in the stability effects were observed between genders but only for the authorized absence model. Across all time points, children with greater emotional difficulties had more absences, and vice versa (authorized: ρ = .23–.29, p < .01; unauthorized: ρ = .28, p < .01). At the within-person level, concurrent associations showed that emotional difficulties were associated with greater authorized (β = .15–.17, p < .01) absence at Time 3 only, but with less unauthorized (β = −.08–.13, p < .05) absence at Times 1 and 2. In cross-lagged pathways, neither authorized nor unauthorized absence predicted later emotional difficulties, and emotional difficulties did not predict later authorized absence at any time point. However, greater emotional difficulties were associated with fewer unauthorized absences across time (β = −13–.22, p < .001). The implications of these findings are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Within-person Temporal Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 66%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal pathways between emotional difficulties and school absenteeism in middle childhood: Evidence from developmental cascades

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yet many of them decreased meaningfully in magnitude, and those that decreased the most or changed to statistically insignificant were socioeconomic indicators such as economic disadvantage and residential vacancy. Given these results, attendance patterns may relate to and result in proximal processes that have compounding effects over time (Simon et al, 2020). Alternatively, or in addition, students who are the most persistently chronically absent may also face greater socioeconomic barriers to attendance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, time plays a role as well: Attendance patterns vary not only by time within a single day (Whitney & Liu, 2016), but also by grade level, and they can be impacted by grade-level transitions (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2012;Bealing, 1990). The timing of a student's absences during the school year may have different consequences (Gottfried & Kirksey, 2017), and absenteeism itself may have compounding effects over time (Ansari & Gottfried, 2021;London et al, 2016;Simon et al, 2020). Finally, the effects of the process, person, and context factors described earlier can change over time as students develop and as their life circumstances change or remain the same.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Singer

Pogodzinski

Lenhoff

et al. 2021

Teachers College Record

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background/Context Chronic absenteeism has received increased attention from educational leaders and policy makers, in part because of the association between attendance and important student outcomes. Student attendance is influenced by a range of student-, school-, and community-level characteristics, suggesting that a comprehensive and multilayered approach to addressing chronic absenteeism is warranted, particularly in high-poverty urban districts. Given the complexity of factors associated with chronic absenteeism, we draw from ecological systems theory to study absenteeism in Detroit, which has the highest rate of chronic absence of major cities in the country. Purpose/Research Questions We use administrative and public data to advance the ecological approach to chronic absenteeism. In particular, we ask: (1) How are student, neighborhood, and school characteristics associated with individual absenteeism? (2) How are structural and environmental conditions associated with citywide rates of absenteeism? Our study helps to fill a gap in the research on absenteeism by moving beyond a siloed focus on student, family, or school factors, instead placing them in relationship to one another and in their broader socioeconomic context. It also illustrates how researchers, policy makers, and administrators can take a theoretically informed approach to chronic absenteeism and use administrative data to conceptualize the problem and the potential routes to improving it. Research Design Using student-level administrative data on all students living and going to school in Detroit in the 2015–2016 school year, we estimate a series of multilevel logistic regressions that measure the association between student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors and the likelihood of a Detroit student being chronically absent. We also use publicly available data to examine how macrosystemic conditions (e.g., health, crime, poverty, racial segregation, weather) are correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism in the 2015–2016 school year, and we compare Detroit with other large cities based on those conditions. Findings/Results Student-, neighborhood-, and school-level factors were significant predictors of chronic absenteeism in Detroit. Students were more likely to be chronically absent if they were economically disadvantaged, received special education services, moved schools or residences during the year, lived in neighborhoods with more crime and residential blight, and went to schools with more economically disadvantaged students and less stable student populations. Macro-level factors were also significantly correlated with citywide rates of absenteeism, highlighting Detroit's uniquely challenging context for attendance. Conclusions/Recommendations Our ecological understanding of absenteeism suggests that school-based efforts are necessary but not sufficient to substantially decrease rates of chronic absenteeism in Detroit and other high-absenteeism contexts. Policies that provide short-term relief from economic hardship and aim to reduce inequalities in the long-run must be understood as part of, rather than separate from, a policy agenda for reducing chronic absenteeism.

show abstract

“…Truancy is the first and best indicator that a student is headed for trouble [4,24,25]. Truancy affects student achievement, including poor performance on standardized tests [26,27], and can result in students dropping out of high school [20,28]. The authors [28] proposed that in order to decrease truancy and student dropout rates, all states need to increase their minimum school-leaving age to 18.…”

Section: Truancy and Get-tough Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pushed Out for Missing School: The Role of Social Disparities and School Truancy in Dropping Out

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research: The goal of this study is to understand the experiences of Black and Latino former high school students who dropped out, or were pushed out, of a large urban school district in Southern California. Specifically, this paper examines the barriers students faced that contributed to them leaving high school and their journey afterward. Thirty-nine former high school students who “dropped out”, or were pushed out of school, 61.5% males (n = 24) and 38.5% females (n = 15), were interviewed. Findings: The findings indicate the use of punitive truancy control for dealing with health and psychological needs of students, transportation issues, personnel–student relationships, and standardized testing. Examining the experiences of students who have been pushed out of school can help educators and policy makers address some of the inequities within schools. Results: We argue that pushout prevention can be developed by changing truancy and other discipline policies in schools. Implications from this study help us understand how we can better support students before they are pushed out.

show abstract

Elementary absenteeism over time: A latent class growth analysis predicting fifth and eighth grade outcomes

Cited by 16 publications

References 50 publications

Longitudinal pathways between emotional difficulties and school absenteeism in middle childhood: Evidence from developmental cascades

Longitudinal pathways between emotional difficulties and school absenteeism in middle childhood: Evidence from developmental cascades

Advancing an Ecological Approach to Chronic Absenteeism: Evidence from Detroit

Pushed Out for Missing School: The Role of Social Disparities and School Truancy in Dropping Out

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About