Causal Pathways to Risk and Protective Factors for Partial-Day School Absenteeism for Secondary School Students

Introduction: Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% or more school days annually, negatively impacts academic achievement and correlates with long-term risks like poverty, poor health, and criminal behavior. While prior research has focused on full-day absences, partial-day absences, missing portions of the school day, are more prevalent and may have detrimental effects on academic outcomes. Despite this significance, PDAs are underexplored, leaving gaps in understanding their prevalence, causes, and impact. This study seeks to address these gaps and provide insights to guide comprehensive absenteeism interventions. Methods: In this study we used the Kids and Teens at School framework and causal discovery analysis to model the factors causally associated with partial-day absences using secondary school student-level data (n = 125,375) from the 2019 Minnesota Student Survey. The discovered model indicate specified factors as causes of PDAs and broader absenteeism patterns. Results and Conclusions: The findings highlighted a pattern of partial-day absences directly affecting full-day absences. Additional factors influencing school absences were discovered including (a) a positive association of sleep deprivation with mental health difficulties, and (b) a negative association between school engagement and partial-day absences. These findings emphasize the need for targeted policies addressing the behavioral and structural factors influencing absenteeism. Implications for practice include strategies to enhance engagement and mitigate the impact of sleep deprivation on attendance.