The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 18:2 (2009), pp.

151-165

A Qualitative Research Study on School

Absenteeism Among College Students
Michael A. Clores
Ateneo de Naga University
mclores@adnu.edu.ph

School absenteeism is an alarming problem for administrators, teachers, parents, and the society,
in general, as well as for the students, in particular. It may indicate low performance of teachers,
students’ dissatisfaction of the school’s services, or lack of or poor academic and non-academic
structures or policies that address the problems or factors influencing or reinforcing this behavior.
Parents are financially burdened for having their children to stay longer in the school, having to
re-enroll them in subjects where they fail due to excessive absences. The present study aimed
to explore the process by which the phenomenon of school absenteeism evolves or is experienced
by the college students. In-depth interviews of ten absentee students and the use of editing
style analysis and a method described by Colaizzi (1978) yielded three category schemes of
experience of school absenteeism: (a) disempowering circumstances - feeling of helplessness;
(b) misguided value system - mixed up priorities; and (c) pedagogical dilemmas - unappealing
academic environments. Based on the findings, the pedagogical, psychological and socio-cultural
implications are discussed.

Keywords: Absenteeism, qualitative research, regular attendance

Success in any field of endeavor requires
discipline. In school for example, students are
molded to become responsible individuals who
would be able to carry out tasks and duties without
much supervision from teachers. At home, they are
trusted by parents to help themselves seek for their
bright future. But the kind of environment these
students frequent creates a negative force that tests
their control and discipline. Acritical factor lurking
within academic institutions and shaking their
psychosocial and cognitive stability is absenteeism.
When a student chooses to be absent in school,
especially at the college level, he/she suffers a loss
of learning and instructional time leading to poor
social and academic achievements. This is not to
mention the financial loss if the student is enrolled
in a private school. As he/she continuously misses
learning opportunities in school, he/she may
eventually drop out of school moving on to lives of
delinquency, crime, poverty, and unemployment.
Hence, school absenteeism has far-reaching
consequences.
In most countries, attendance to primary and
secondary schools is compulsory; thus, students
who irregularly attend their classes and demonstrate
patterns of chronic absences violate the compulsory
attendance laws. These laws consider absences
due to illness and familycrises as excused absences.

© 2009 De La Salle University, Philippines

152 THE ASIA-PACIFIC EDUCATION RESEARCHER
An unjustifiable or unexplainable absence or non-
attendance from school with attempt bythe student
to conceal the absenteeism is referred to as
truancy. Research done on school absenteeism/
non-attendance/truancy at the primary and
secondary levels suggests that it is a phenomenon
with no single cause-effect relationship (Cameron,
2004). Understanding the phenomenon means
considering interrelated and multidirectional forces
interacting among them, namely, the student, the
school, and the community.
In England, Finland, France, Germany,
Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and
Russia, absenteeism is considered to be one of the
standard problems of the school systems.
Researches done on absenteeism in these European
countries reveal that absenteeism is associated
with juvenile delinquency, social and individual
factors, school problems, poor language ability,
difficult family situation, alcoholism, financial need
and illness. Demographic and ethnic factors are
also mentioned in this connection. In general, the
frequency of absences in major cities is higher than
the frequency of absenteeism in rural areas.
Absenteeism among students is also attributed to
an extremely cold and impersonal learning
environment (Sokrates Programme COMENIUS
2.1., 2003).
Researches on schoolabsenteeism revealed that
absences are related to a number of important
consequences or outcomes (Lounsbury, Steel,
Loveland, & Gibson, 2004). These include school
drop-out, student achievement, IQ scores,
delinquency ( Towberman, 1994), gang
membership (Aiken, Rush, Wycoff, 1993),
educational aspirations, and school performance/
attendance of one’s own children (Bhatnagar &
Sharma, 1992; Matumoto, 1994).
Quantitative research on antecedent and
correlates of absenteeism linked it to such diverse
variables as socioeconomic disadvantage, self-
concept and personality needs, teacher control and
support, teacher interpersonal skills (Loveland,
Lounsbury, Welsh, & Buboltz, 2007), academic
press (Philips, 1997), teen pregnancy (Stevenson,
Maton, & Tett, 1998), family activity levels
VOL. 18 NO. 2
(Hansen, Sanders, Massaro, & Last, 1998), and
affiliation problems with peers (Hirate & Sako,
1998-1999), substance abuse (Byrne & Mazanov,
1999), participation in school athletics (Whitley,
1999), cognitive style (Rayner & Riding, 1996),
season of birth (Carroll, 1992), and self-reported
alienation. Corville-Smith, Ryan, Adams, &
Dalicandro, (1998) define absenteeism as a
complex behavioral product triggered by multiple
factors.
In the Philippines, research on absenteeism
started in 1950s and many of these studies focused
on the elementaryand high schoollevels. It appears
that there is a dearth of researches on school
absenteeism at the college level, particularly among
private institutions.
In the case of Ateneo de Naga University, one
of the Filipino Catholic Jesuit universities in the
Philippines, school absenteeism is a major
problem. During the first semester of the school
year 2006-2007, a total of 2003 (35.30%) of 5673
students were placed under Warning Status (i.e.,
they have incurred the maximum allowable
absences). About 461 or 23% of the 2003 students
are from the College of Arts and Sciences, 431 or
21.5%, from the College of Computer Studies, 401
or 20% from the College of Commerce, 310 or
15.5% from the College of Education, 210 or
10.5% from the College of Nursing, and 190 or
9.5%, from the College of Engineering.
The comparative data on Failure Due to
Absences (AF) for the past three semesters had
almost the same number of absentees. Thirty-nine
percent (39%) of the total number of students
(5295) during the 1st semester of S/Y 2006-2007
incurred AF status. Similarly, forty-nine percent
(49%) during the 2nd semester of school year (SY)
2005-2006, and thirty-seven (37%) during the 1st
semester of SY 2005-2006 were in the same
situation.
Although the College Faculty Manual (2003)
explicitly states that:
Punctual and regular attendance is expected
of every student, thus all absences are
counted…. Any student who accumulates
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