Understanding School Attendance, Educational Attainment, and Labour Market Outcomes

Pupil absenteeism has long been a challenge in the UK, especially among disadvantaged children, and this has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic. In England, the absence rate rose from 4.3% in 2018 to 7.2% in 2024, with similar trends in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Socioeconomic disparities in absenteeism have also widened, making it a critical focus for UK education policy. This study explores how absenteeism affects educational attainment and labour market outcomes. Absences are shown to have both short- and long-term negative impacts, with significant negative impacts on national exam performance and future employment prospects. The study finds that absences during key educational transitions, such as from primary to secondary school, are particularly detrimental. While patterns of increasing absences from early primary school onwards are the most damaging, even moderate levels of absenteeism accumulate to harm academic achievement. Both authorised and unauthorised absences equally impact educational outcomes, though unauthorised absences are particularly harmful when they increase over time. The study also found that psychosocial factors, such as educational motivation and risky behaviours, partly explain the negative impact of absenteeism on academic success. The negative effects of absenteeism are consistent across all UK nations and sociodemographic groups, with disadvantaged students more likely to be frequently absent. The findings underscore the need for targeted interventions, such as early support systems, health screenings, and efforts to engage families and schools in addressing absenteeism. Addressing absenteeism at all school stages and across all groups is essential for improving educational and labour market outcomes and breaking the cycle of disadvantage, particularly in the post-pandemic context. In conclusion, addressing pupil absenteeism is essential for enhancing educational outcomes and breaking the cycle of disadvantage. This study provides critical insights for policymakers and educators in the post-pandemic context, emphasizing the need for targeted, stage-specific interventions that address both authorised and unauthorised absences, while also considering the broader psychosocial factors that contribute to absenteeism

The role of energy balance related behaviors in socioeconomic inequalities in childhood body mass index : a comparative analysis of Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Socioeconomic inequalities in childhood Body Mass Index (BMI) are becoming increasingly more pronounced across the world. Although countries differ in the direction and strength of these inequalities, cross-national comparative research on this topic is rare. This paper draws on harmonized longitudinal cohort data from four wealthy countries—Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US)—to 1) map cross-country differences in the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in childhood BMI, and 2) to examine cross-country differences in the role of three energy-balance-related behaviors—physical activity, screen time, and breakfast consumption—in explaining these inequalities. Children were aged 5–7 at our first timepoint and were followed up at age 8–11. We used data from the German National Educational Panel Study, the Dutch Generation R study, the UK Millennium Cohort Study and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal-Kindergarten Study. All countries revealed significant inequalities in childhood BMI. The US stood out in having the largest inequalities. Overall, inequalities between children with low versus medium educated parents were smaller than those between children with high versus medium educated parents. The role of energy-balance-related behaviors in explaining inequalities in BMI was surprisingly consistent. Across countries, physical activity did not, while screen time and breakfast consumption did play a role. The only exception was that breakfast consumption did not play a role in the US. Cross-country differences emerged in the relative contribution of each behavior in explaining inequalities in BMI: Breakfast consumption was most important in the UK, screen time explained most in Germany and the US, and breakfast consumption and screen time were equally important in the Netherlands. Our findings suggest that what constitutes the most effective policy intervention differs across countries and that these should target both children from medium as well as low educated families

International differences in gradients in early childhood overweight and obesity : the role of maternal employment and formal childcare attendance

Background There are significant cross-country differences in socio-economic gradients in later childhood and adulthood overweight/obesity; few studies assess whether this cross-national variation is evident from early childhood. Furthermore, the role of childcare in explaining overweight/obesity gradients might vary across countries, given differences in access, quality and heterogeneity within. Additionally, childcare is linked to parental characteristics such as maternal employment. The interplay between childcare and employment in producing early overweight/obesity gradients has received little attention, and might vary cross-nationally. Methods Using harmonized data from six high-quality, large datasets, we explore the variation in gradients in early overweight/obesity (at age 3–4 years old) by parental education across several high-income countries (USA, UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan). We then assess whether differential formal group care use attenuates some of these gradients, and whether this varies across maternal employment. Results Gradients in early childhood overweight/obesity by parental education are evident across several developed countries. Countries with higher overall prevalence of early overweight/obesity did not have the largest inequalities across education groups. The contribution of formal group care to producing these gradients varied across countries and across maternal employment status. Conclusion Early childhood inequalities in overweight/obesity are pervasive across developed countries, as noted for older children and adults. However, mechanisms producing these gradients vary across national contexts. Our study shows that, given the right context, quality childcare and maternal employment can successfully support healthy weight trajectories and not contribute (or even reduce) social inequalities in early overweight/obesity

Cross-national differences in socioeconomic achievement inequality in early primary school : the role of parental education and income in six countries

This paper presents comparative information on the socioeconomic status (SES) gradients in literacy skills at age 6-8, drawing on harmonized national datasets from France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We investigate whether understanding of comparative SES gradients in early-to-mid childhood depends on the operationalization of SES (parental education, income, or both); and whether differences in inequalities at the end of lower secondary schooling documented in international large-scale assessments are already present when children have experienced at most two years of formal compulsory schooling. We find marked differences in the SES gradient in early achievement across countries that are largely insensitive to the way SES is measured, and that seem to mirror inequalities reported for older students. We conclude that country context shapes the link between parental SES and children’s educational achievement, with country differences rooted in the early childhood period

Explaining gaps by parental education in children’s early language and social outcomes at age 3–4 years:evidence from harmonised data from three countries

Child outcomes vary by family's socioeconomic status (SES). Research on explanatory factors underlying early SES-related disparities has mainly focused on specific child outcomes (e.g., language skills) and selected influencing factors in single countries often with a focus on individual differences but not explicitly on early SES-related gaps. This study uses harmonised data from longitudinal large-scale studies conducted in the United Kingdom, United States, and Germany to examine parental education-related gaps in early child language and social skills. Twelve theoretically proposed family-, child-, and childcare-related factors were systematically evaluated as explanatory factors. In all countries, parental education-related gaps were particularly pronounced for early child language compared to social skills. In the decomposition analyses, the home learning environment was the only measure that significantly explained gaps in all child outcomes across all countries. Early centre-based care attendance, family income, and maternal age at childbirth contributed to gaps in child outcomes with the specific pattern of results varying across outcomes and countries. Maternal depressive feelings significantly contributed only to explaining gaps in children's social skills. Thus, while some mechanisms found to underpin early parental education-related gaps can be generalized from single-country, single-domain studies, others are outcome- and context-specific

Teacher judgements and gender achievement gaps in primary education in England, Germany, and the US

Highlights• Above and beyond achievement, teacher overrate girls in language, underrate them in mathematics. • Teacher judgement bias predicts later student achievement net of earlier achievement. • Teacher judgement bias contributes to gender achievement gaps. • Despite these common findings, cross-country differences emerged