Parental monitoring, involvement and school absence

Abstract

Background: School absence represents a serious problem in adolescents’ development, as it may lead to severe consequences. Being absent from school is associated with social, psychological and health problems, and is the most important predictor of school dropout. A great deal of research across professional disciplines have strived to identify the factors that influence school absence, in order to expand the understanding of the problem, and for the purpose of developing effective interventions. The current study examined whether the parenting practices parental monitoring and involvement was associated with school absence in a sample of Norwegian adolescents. Methods: Data was collected from the youth@Hordaland-survey, distributed by the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, RKBU Vest in 2012. The current study was based on 1257 parental respondents and adolescents registry data on school absence. The instruments on parental monitoring and involvement relied on selfreports. Socioeconomic status and parental warmth was included as control variables. Results: When studied continuously, school absence was significantly associated with risk of receiving less parental monitoring and involvement. When investigated categorically, parental monitoring was found to be significantly lower for adolescents with normal levels of school absence (3-15% absent), whereas adolescents with high levels (>15% absent) of school absence were at risk of receiving less parental involvement compared to adolescents with low levels of school absence (<3% absent). These findings could not be explained by levels of socioeconomic status nor warmth in the youth-parent relationship