A study of persistent absence from school in Sheffield : Prevalence and associated educational, psychological and social factors.

Following a pilot project and a literature review, three annual surveys were undertaken on the prevalence of persistent absence from Sheffield schools. The results showed: (a) that persistent absentee rates remained stable between theages 5-12, but rose sharply thereafter; (b) that there was no important association between a secondaryschool's size and its absentee rates; (c) that poverty in the school's catchment area was a reliable predictor of absence rates;(d) that in an important minority of schools, mostly serving socially disadvantaged areas, absentee rates varied substantially over the three years; (e) that less than 40 per cent of persistent absence was attributed primarily to illness, and less than 20 per cent to absence without parental knowledge; (f) that less than 33 per cent of absentees were known to the police. To obtain information on social, psychological and educational variables associated with absence, interviews were carried out with all unauthorised absentees from one part of Sheffield. Results showed: (a) that school influences were reported by parents and pupils to become more significant in the secondary school years than at primary schools; (b) that persistent absentees from primary schools were living under severely and multiply disadvantaged circumstances, and that the same applied, though somewhat less consistently, to secondary school absentees; (c) that many absentees resisted pressure to attend school partly because of well-founded anxiety about their parents' health; (d) that absentees referred to the psychological service tended to have a more serious history of anti-social behaviour and of inadequacy in social relationships at school; (e) that truants differed in several ways from other unauthorised absentees; (f) that the outlook for subsequent attendance was poor.The results are discussed in the light of their possible implications for schools and for the educational support services.