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

家庭社会经济地位（SES）显著影响儿童的出勤率，从而影响教育成就。有证据表明，来自较低社会经济地位背景的儿童在失学儿童中所占比例过高，这种不平等可能在一定程度上解释了社会经济地位与学业成绩之间的差距。然而，我们并不完全了解家庭经济地位影响缺勤的机制，这是打破经济地位与缺勤之间联系的关键知识。这个项目考察了社会心理和行为倾向（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SES和缺勤之间的联系。它将进一步调查社会经济地位、性格和缺勤之间的联系是否因社会人口统计学群体（性别、种族）而异。研究效果的机制是复杂的，需要对因果模型的概念澄清和先进的调解方法来解决这些复杂性。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，以期阐明分析策略是否影响对研究结果的解释。我们的研究将为社会经济地位导致不同社会人口群体缺课的机制提供急需的证据。这将为政策制定者和从业人员提供减少缺勤和解决就学不平等问题的必要信息。通过强调不同的社会心理和行为调节因素对学校缺勤中社会经济不平等的相对重要性，将明确哪些干预措施可以减轻缺勤。在2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）导致学校关闭的当前背景下，这项研究是及时的——所有儿童都被强制“缺勤”一段时间，有证据表明，学校重新开放后，缺勤现象和社会经济差异加剧。最后，本研究希望对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.