Family socioeconomic status and school absenteeism - The role of behavioural and psychosocial dispositions

家庭社会经济地位(SES)在很大程度上影响着儿童的出勤率，从而影响到他们的教育成绩。有证据表明，来自较低SES背景的儿童在缺课儿童中的比例过高，这种不平等可能在一定程度上解释了SES-成绩差距。然而，我们并不完全了解家庭自尊对旷课的影响机制，这是打破自尊和缺课之间联系的关键知识。这个项目调查了心理社会和行为倾向(例如，内化和外化行为)是否解释了英国所有四个国家的家庭社会保障和旷工之间的联系。它将进一步调查社会经济地位、性格和旷工之间的联系是否在不同的社会人口统计群体(性别、种族)之间存在差异。调查影响机制是复杂的，需要对因果模型和先进的调解方法进行概念性澄清，以解决这些复杂性。因此，这项研究将测试相互竞争的方法，以了解社会经济地位、性格和缺勤之间的联系，以期揭示分析策略是否影响对调查结果的解释。我们的研究将为不同社会人口群体中SES导致缺课的机制提供亟需的证据。这将为政策制定者和实践者提供有关减少缺勤率和解决上学不平等问题的必要信息。通过强调不同的心理社会和行为调解人对学校旷课的社会经济不平等的相对重要性，哪些干预措施可以减轻旷课现象将变得显而易见。在当前新冠肺炎学校停课的背景下，这项研究恰逢其时。有证据表明，学校开学后，缺勤率和社会经济差距有所上升，这是所有儿童被迫停课的时期。最后，这项研究希望为解决社会科学特别是教育中的因果调解问题做出重要的方法论贡献。

Family socioeconomic status (SES) significantly influences children's school attendance, and consequently, educational achievement. Evidence suggests that children from lower SES backgrounds are overrepresented in those absent from school, and this inequality may partly explain the SES-achievement gap. However, we do not fully understand the mechanisms by which family SES influences school absenteeism, a key knowledge for breaking the link between SES and school absence. This project examines whether psychosocial and behavioural dispositions (e.g., internalising and externalising behaviours) explain the association between family SES and absenteeism in all four UK nations. It will further investigate whether the associations between SES, dispositions, and absenteeism vary across socio-demographic groups (gender, ethnicity). Investigating mechanisms of effect is complex and requires conceptual clarification on the causal model and advanced methods of mediation to address these complexities. Consequently, the study will test competing approaches for understanding the link between SES, dispositions and absenteeism with the view to shedding light on whether analytical strategies influence the interpretation of findings. Our study will provide much-needed evidence on the mechanisms by which SES leads to school absences among different socio-demographic groups. This will give policymakers and practitioners the necessary information on reducing absenteeism and addressing inequalities in school attendance. It will become clear which interventions can mitigate absenteeism by highlighting the relative importance of different psychosocial and behavioural mediators for socioeconomic inequalities in school absenteeism. The study is timely within the current context of COVID-19 school closures - an enforced period of "absenteeism" for all children, with evidence of increased absenteeism and socioeconomic disparities in absences after schools reopened. Finally, the study hopes to make an important methodological contribution to addressing questions of causal mediation in the social sciences and particularly education.