Teacher Absenteeism and Ill Health Retirement: A review

“…Infections affect child health, causing missed educational opportunities which may have a detrimental effect on educational outcomes, 1 2 lost productivity and days off work for school staff. 3 Educational settings where large numbers of children with immature immunity congregate are promising sites for preventing infection, particularly as outbreaks can affect whole schools and spread to vulnerable populations (eg, younger siblings) in the community. 4 5 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of hand hygiene interventions in reducing illness absence among children in educational settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2015

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ObjectiveTo undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis to establish the effectiveness of handwashing in reducing absence and/or the spread of respiratory tract (RT) and/or gastrointestinal (GI) infection among school-aged children and/or staff in educational settings.DesignRandomised-controlled trials (RCTs).SettingSchools and other settings with a formal educational component in any country.PatientsChildren aged 3–11 years, and/or staff working with them.InterventionInterventions with a hand hygiene component.Main outcome measuresIncidence of RT or GI infections or symptoms related to such infections; absenteeism; laboratory results of RT and/or GI infections.ResultsEighteen cluster RCTs were identified; 13 school-based, 5 in child day care facilities or preschools. Studies were heterogeneous and had significant quality issues including small numbers of clusters and participants and inadequate randomisation. Individual study results suggest interventions may reduce children's absence, RT infection incidence and symptoms, and laboratory confirmed influenza-like illness. Evidence of impact on GI infection or symptoms was equivocal.ConclusionsStudies are generally not well executed or reported. Despite updating existing systematic reviews and identifying new studies, evidence of the effect of hand hygiene interventions on infection incidence in educational settings is mostly equivocal but they may decrease RT infection among children. These results update and add to knowledge about this crucial public health issue in key settings with a vulnerable population. More robust, well reported cluster RCTs which learn from existing studies, are required.

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“…Recent reviews of the literature emphasize absence as a variable related not only to demographic characteristics of individuals but also to organizational environment and social context (Felfe and Schyns, 2004;Martocchio and Jimeno, 2003;Xie and Johns, 2000). In educational research, teacher absenteeism was found to be related to a culture consisting of attendance norms (Bowers, 2001;Myburgh and Poggenpoel, 2002), and principals' supportive leadership style (Imants and Van Zoelen, 1995;Scott-Norton, 1998). These studies showed that teachers react to undesired social elements in their workplace context by staying away from work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

School ethical climate and teachers' voluntary absence

Shapira‐Lishchinsky

Rosenblatt

2010

Journal of Educational Administration

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Purpose-This paper aims to offer a theoretical framework for linking school ethical climate with teachers' voluntary absence. The paper attempts to explain this relationship using the concept of affective organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach-Participants were 1,016 school teachers from 35 high schools in Israel. Data were collected by self-report questionnaires and tested against archival data. The GENMOD procedure of SAS was applied. This procedure enables regression models for variables which are not necessarily normally distributed-such as absence-to be fit and also to account for the intraclass-correlations within schools. Absence was measured by frequency of absence events, and ethical climate was measured by two dimensions: caring and formal. Findings-Results show that caring and formal ethical climates are both related to teacher absence. Affective commitment was found to mediate the relationship between formal ethical climate and absence frequency. This is not true for the ethical climate of caring. Practical implications-School principals may reduce voluntary absence by creating an ethical climate focused on caring and clear and just rules and procedures. Originality/value-Whereas past research on work absence focused primarily on personal antecedents, the present study addresses factors embedded in school ethics. The results contribute to knowledge of the influence of organizational context on absence behavior.

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Teacher Absenteeism and Ill Health Retirement: A review

Cited by 50 publications

References 22 publications

Burnout and effort–reward imbalance improvement for teachers by a manual-based group program

Burnout and effort–reward imbalance improvement for teachers by a manual-based group program

Effectiveness of hand hygiene interventions in reducing illness absence among children in educational settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis

School ethical climate and teachers' voluntary absence

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