IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences © 2018 Indian Association of Health, Research and Welfare

Review, 2018, 6(1), 121-124 ISSN-2347-3797

UGC Journal No 41948 and NAAS Rating 3.17

Predictors of absenteeism at senior secondary level

Shalini Barthwal and Manju Pandey
Department of Psychology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand

In India, school absenteeism has been the focus of study in the primary and upper primary level, as the nation's main
policy has been to increase enrolments in schools. The senior secondary classes (i.e., class XI & XII) have never
been in the focus when it to comes being absent from school without any rational cause. This research gap lays the
foundation for the present study with the focus on the mental health and youth problems of senior secondary
students who are frequently absent from school. A mental health and youth problem analysis of 200 students was
done from Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand using Mental Health Battery (Singh & Gupta, 2005) and Youth Problem
Inventory (Verma, 1996). Intelligence came out as the strongest predictor of absenteeism followed by emotional
stability, family problems, school problems, self-concept and autonomy.

Keywords: school absenteeism, truancy, mental health, youth problems

One can know the future of a country on the basis of the quality of its
youth. Youth which represents the most vital and vibrant segment of
the society, is also the most vulnerable one. When we hear the word
“Youth” in the news, we almost expect to listen about problems.
Indeed, we have seen a drastic increase over the last 20 years in youth
related concerns like teen suicide and homicide, gang involvement,
teen pregnancy, use of drugs and indulgence in crime and violence
among them. Nowadays our youth is misdirected due to various
reasons. One of the reasons for misdirection in the Indian youth is
staying out of school, either by the student himself or approved by the
parents.
Over the years, many professionals such as psychologists,
social/criminal justice experts, educators, medical experts, and other
researchers have studied school absenteeism. Although student
related absenteeism has been studied across disciplines, literature
has viewed some disagreement in how absenteeism related
terminologies are defined and used. Therefore, it becomes utmost
important to have a common understanding of student absenteeism
throughout the study. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary,
absenteeism is defined as “a tendency to be away from work or
school without a good reason. In the context of the school it is the
practice or habit of being absent from school”. According to Teasley
(2004), absenteeism is a period of time when a student does not
attend school. Many literature often use the term absenteeism and
truancy synonymously while certain authors have a different point of
view, where they distinguish truancy from absenteeism. According
to them, truancy numbers typically underestimate total absenteeism.
In an attempt to define absenteeism as compared to truancy,
Fugleman and Richardson (2001) suggested that absenteeism is a
habitual constant absence from school while truancy is an act of or
practice of intentionally staying away from school without any
rational reason, whether or not the parents or guardians know and
approve of it. Although there is no standard definition, but during the
course of the present study, absenteeism has been typically defined as
Correspondence should be sent to Shalini Barthwal
Research Scholar, Department of Psychology
Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University
Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand
E-mail: shalini050888@gmail.com
the percentage of days of school missed in an academic session,
including both excused and unexcused absences. This is critical
because the evidence indicates that it is how many days a student
misses that matters, not why they miss them.
Absenteeism which is a common phenomenon in India, can be
observed in most Government and Private Schools whether Primary,
Upper Primary, Secondary or Senior Secondary. When talking about
Uttarakhand alone, according to the 2016 Annual Status of
Education Report (ASER) survey, a drastic decrease in attendance
of classes I to VIII has been witnessed. In 2010, the average
attendance of primary and upper primary children on the day of the
visit of the ASER team was 89.7% this proportion has decreased to
82.5% in 2016. Such is the decrease in attendance of primary and
upper primary grades then how one can expect a good attendance at
the secondary or senior secondary level. The sad part is that there is
no measure to assess the attendance of senior secondary grades i.e.
classes XI and XII; in spite of the fact that the student should be
present in the school and complete the required percentage of
attendance (75%) for Class XI and XII as per examination byelaws
of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to make
him/her eligible for the examinations conducted by the CBSE. This
major knowledge gap is acting as a blindfold on the problem of
absenteeism in senior secondary grades.
Research findings have well supported the general belief that
classroom punctuality strengthens and enforces learning processes
of students, which results into their enhanced scholastic attainments
than those who prefer to stay away from classes and miss
(absent/bunk/truant) classes from time to time or regularly for
diverse reasons, personal or otherwise. The consequences of
unexcused absence from school lead to serious delinquent activities
in youth and to considerable abnormal behaviour and negative
characteristics in adults. Absenteeism has always been a risk factor
for delinquent behaviours in youth, especially when it takes the form
of truancy, which has been found to be related to gang activity,
substance abuse, and involvement in criminal activities such as
burglary, auto theft, and vandalism (Dryfoos, 1990; Rohrman, 1993;
Bell, Rosen, & Dynlacht, 1994; Huizinga, Loeber, & Thornberry,
1995; Garry, 1996). A great deal of research in the area of
developmental pathways to delinquency shows that these
behavioural problems often are followed by gradually more severe
122 BARTHWAL AND PANDY/ PREDICTORS OF ABSENTEEISM AT SENIOR SECONDARY
behavioural and adjustment problems in adulthood, as well as an
increased susceptibility for violent behaviour (Dryfoos, 1990; Bell et
al., 1994; Kelley, Loeber, Keenan, & DeLamarte, 1997).
From the above knowledge, absenteeism has been undoubtedly
acknowledged as one of the early warning signs of students headed
for likely delinquent activity, social seclusion, or educational failure
via suspension, expulsion, or dropping out. Left unaddressed,
absenteeism during the teenage years can have significant negative
effects on the student, schools, and society. According to Thompson
(2008), poor school attendance lowers literacy and numeracy rates of
any country. Therefore, it is important to identify promising
strategies to intervene with chronic absentees, address the root
causes of absenteeism, and stop youths' progression from
absenteeism into more serious and violent behaviours.
In spite of enormous governmental movement, the education
outlook in India is unstable and novel initiatives are being
introduced, both for secondary education and higher education. Even
though there has been a decline in the number of out-of-school
children since 2004, India still ranks 99th on the list of Education For
All (EFA) Development Index, among 125 countries. Seeing this
picture, most possibly we need better perception of the issues
involved, starting with the burden of problems, contributory and
related factors, interventional plans and cost effectiveness of school
based programs at national level. The present study is designed to
address this national cause. A number of investigators have ventured
to go into the causes of absenteeism in India but Uttarakhand seems
to be left out. Due to a hilly state it becomes difficult to reach each
and every school and extreme weather conditions may act as an
additional point. Thus, the researcher acknowledged the need to
study the mental health and youth problem factors responsible for
absenteeism in senior secondary schools in Srinagar, Uttarakhand.
Studying the mental health and youth problems of the absentees
would help educators, parents, and mental health professionals to
ensure much appropriate and tactful counselling of such students.
Method
Participants
The present study was conducted on students of class XI and XII of
senior secondary schools of Srinagar, Garhwal. Students studying in
schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education were
selected as the sample. Total 4 schools were selected through
purposive sampling. The intent of purposively selecting the schools
was drawn after collecting information about the secondary schools
in Srinagar from the local social workers, police authorities, parents,
educators and principals. Only those schools were selected which
had records of poor attendance and whose students have been found
bunking the school by the local police authorities. Further, students
from each school were raised by stratified random sampling
technique keeping in mind the strata of absenteeism and gender.
Total 200 school students were selected as the sample. Out of 200,
there were (n=100) high absentee students who have attendance less
than 50% in school and n=100 were low absentees who have
attendance more than 75% in school. In both the groups there were an
equal number of males (n=50) and females (n=50).
Instruments
Mental Health Battery by (Singh & Gupta, 2005) contains 130 items
and measures mental health of adolescents (13 to 22 years) through
six indices emotional stability (15 items), over all adjustment (40
items), autonomy (15 items), security insecurity (15 items), self-
concept (15 items) and intelligence (30 items).There is no fixed time
limit for the first five parts. However, generally a normal examinee
having average mental health takes about 25 minutes in giving
complete answers. Part VI (Intelligence) is a speed test. The total
time allowed for this part is 10 minutes.
Youth Problem Inventory by (Verma, 1996) is a self-administering
inventory for the students of 16 to 20 years of age of Hindi speaking
areas to locate the problems which the students are ready to disclose.
The inventory contains 80 statements belonging to 4 areas- family
problems, School/college problems, social problems and personal
problems and over sensitivity. The average time taken to finish the
inventory is 15 minutes.
Procedure
The school authorities were informed in detail regarding the purpose
of the data collection and research. The attendance records of the
previous academic session (2015-2016) were matched with the
attendance records of the present session (2016-2017). The present
session's attendance duration was of 4 months till the date of data
collection. Only those students whose present attendance matched
with the previous session's attendance or were close enough were
selected for data collection. This ensured the selection of those
students as a sample who have a similar attendance pattern in the
previous and present session. From the four schools, 298 high
absentees and 396 low absentees were identified. Using stratified
random sampling, n=100 students were selected under each
category with an equal number of male and female students (n=50)
under each level of absenteeism. As the length (the number of items)
of Youth Problem Inventory is less (80 items) than that of Mental
Health Battery (130 items) and no time limit is given to fill the
questionnaire, the Youth Problem Inventory was first filled by
students. After the administration of the test, the students were
divided into equal groups and a small unstructured interview was
conducted with each group to know more about the causes behind
school attendance. In case of the students who are frequently absent
from school and were not available for data collection during school
hours, their home addresses and phone numbers were collected from
the school records. After contacting the parents and students over the
phone and in some cases visiting the house of the students, the
investigator urged for the student's cooperation to be present at
school for data collection. A similar course of action for data
collection was applied upon these students once they were present in
school. This made sure that data from each subject was collected in
the school setting only.
Results
Table I summarizes the stepwise discriminant analysis of
absenteeism from mental health and youth problems. Of the 10
variables included in the analysis only 6 emerged as statistically
significant predictor variables distinguishing high and low absentee
students (non-significant predictor variables were removed from the
table). A closer analysis of the standardized coefficients revealed
that Intelligence (β=-.686) is the strongest predictor of absenteeism
followed by Emotional Stability (β=-.473), Family Problems
(β=.350), School Problems (β=.321), Self-concept (β=-.315) and
Autonomy (β=.308). Family problems, School Problems and
Autonomy were positively associated with absenteeism whereas
 IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences Review, 2018, 6(1), 121-124
Intelligence, Emotional Stability and Self-concept were negatively
associated with absenteeism. Table I shows a canonical correlation of
.564 which suggests that the model explains 31.8% of the variation in
the grouping variable, i.e. high and low absenteeism.
Table I: Stepwise discriminant analysis of absenteeism
Predictors Β Wilk's λ
Intelligence -.686 .798
Emotional Stability -.473 .732
Family Problems -.350 .709
School Problems -.321 .321
Self-Concept -.315 .704
Autonomy -.308 .703
Canonical Correlation -.564
Table II Predicted vs. actual classification matrix results
Predicted group membership
Actual group membership Low absentees High Absentees
Low absentees 80% 20%
High Absentees 27% 73%
Table II shows the percentage of cases correctly classified using
the joint set of 6 significant predictor variables. The classification
table shows a strong predictive ability with an overall correct
classification of 76.5%. Almost 80% of the low absentee students
and 73% of the high absentee students were correctly classified using
this combined set of characteristics.
Discussion
A stepwise discriminant analysis revealed a joint significant
contribution of various dimensions of mental health and youth
problems. Intelligence is the strongest predictor of absenteeism
followed by emotional stability, family problems, school problems,
self-concept and autonomy. Intelligence, emotional stability and
self-concept are negatively associated with absenteeism, i.e. low
intelligence; low self-concept and low emotional stability predict
high absenteeism. Low intelligence may create a feeling of low
academic self-concept and ultimately a feeling of inferiority among
such students. They may become frustrated with the fact that they are
not able to keep up with the other students of the class. Thus, such
students may prefer to stay away from the school to avoid the
frustrations and feelings of inferiority. The potential cause behind
low emotional stability as a significant predictor of absenteeism may
be that low scorers on emotional stability are neurotic individuals,
who have a tendency to display unsuccessful coping mechanisms;
they lack the ability to find a productive solution to a problem and
show indecisiveness very often (Clutterbuck & Lane, 2004).
Therefore, such students may avoid the stresses associated with
academics by absenting classes rather than finding a helpful solution.
Low self-concept is related to low self-esteem which in turn leads to
poor social and interpersonal relations among adolescents and lower
academic success they gain (Gurney, 1986; Delugach, Bracken,
Bracken, & Schicke, 1992). All these factors may drive the student
towards alienation and thus bunking the school as a getaway
measure. The low level of self-concept has been known to correlate
with negative consequences for adolescent adaptation: social
anxiety, alienation, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, offences (Shirk,
1988; Lipka & Brinthaupt, 1992).
123
Family problems, school problems and autonomy are positively
associated with absenteeism, i.e., high family problems; high
autonomy and high school problems predict high absenteeism. The
importance of the role of family functions in the psychological
development of a child is known since ages. Any dysfunction or
abnormality in the family affects the behaviour of the child. Family
problems may take the form of lack of parental interest (Cohen &
Ryan, 1998) and no parental support and encouragement (Reid,
1999). Rohner and Britner's (2002) longitudinal evidence reveals
that parental rejection tends to precede the development of a variety
of mental health problems, such as depression and depressed affect,
conduct problems and behaviour disorders, and substance abuse.
Hence, higher family may bound to precede high absenteeism. The
nature of the school problems reported by high absentees during the
interview included fear of teachers, rejection and indifference by
teachers. Also, such students perceive that their teacher's behaviour
towards them is harsh, rude and sarcastic. Black (1996) observed
that negative attitudes displayed by some educators may drive
Total
certain pupils to school non-attendance. Also, student perceptions of
100 the classroom or teacher as chaotic, uncaring, or boring have been
100 associated with student absenteeism (Duckworth & DeJong, 1989;
Roderick et al., 1997). Fornwalt (1947) explained that teachers who
subject their students to shame, sarcasm, name calling, ridicule, and
humiliations are the direct causes of absenteeism. Thus, absenteeism
may become an escape mechanism for such students, where students
are trying to get away from something, in this case the teachers. High
absentee students also find difficulties in the subjects being taught at
schools. It has been well established that when the curriculum is too
challenging for students, it may lead to frustration and eventually
increased rates of absenteeism (John Gardner Center, 2010;
Hocking, 2008; Student Advocacy, 2008; Sundius & Farneth, 2008).
The reason for the prediction of high absenteeism from the higher
level of autonomy may be possible due to the association of high
autonomy in adolescents with problematic behaviour (Sussman,
McCuller, & Dent, 2003) and deficiencies in attachment (Lee &
Bell, 2003) and personality (Unnever & Cornell, 2003). Also, an
interactive combination of hormonal changes during this
developmental period, increased influence of peers and increased
autonomy leads the students to experiment with the self-directed
behaviours previously restricted by parents and school personnel.
Such experimentation may be benign in nature for some, but for
others may potentiate entry into more deviant behaviours during the
unsupervised period of the school day that develop further and
expand in range beyond mere absenteeism.
The present and the previous researches have dictated that
absenteeism does not occur due to a single factor, but is a product of
many. Therefore, it becomes necessary to tackle absenteeism
through the use of more than one agency. The most important
theoretical implication of the present research from the findings of
discriminant analysis is that absenteeism is a result of interaction
between three agencies namely: the self, family and school. Figure
5.1 gives a picture of the association of the three agencies.
The self comprises of intelligence, autonomy, emotional stability
and self-concept. Although the family and school are two separate
systems the child serves as a link between the two and, therefore, a
problem in one is “likely to be felt in the other through the child”
(Cimmarusti, James, Simpson, & Wright, 1984, p. 202). For
instance, family problems are unlikely to be confined to the home,
but rather spillover into the school affecting students' ability to
124 BARTHWAL AND PANDY/ PREDICTORS OF ABSENTEEISM AT SENIOR SECONDARY
Emotional
Autonomy
stability
Self-concept
Intelligence
Self
School Family
Figure 5.1: Relationship of self, family and school system based on
discriminant analysis
concentrate, their grades, and even their relations with their teachers
and classmates. Similarly, a weak self of the child results into
interpersonal relationship issues within the family and also outside
the family (Sadovnikova, 2016). Thus, the association of these three
agencies implies that the problem of absenteeism can be curbed
through an open communication and a balanced relationship
between school, family and self.
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