Poster #140 - What Makes Absenteeism Interventions Work? A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Approach

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Abstract

Absenteeism has been a growing concern in the US and has only gotten worse after COVID-19. There have been numerous studies of absenteeism over the years in an effort to understand how to keep students in school. While there have been some studies that attempt to synthesize the literature, they do not entail anything after 2020, and they tend to focus on specific populations/contexts.

Thus, the field lacks up-to-date research on absenteeism interventions that is also generalizable. My study addresses this research gap. After a comprehensive review process, I will employ qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to answer the following:

1.     What kinds of interventions are effective for reducing absenteeism?

2.     What combination of intervention components are effective?

3.     For which schooling levels are these most effective?

Methods:

The proposed study seeks to compare results across multiple studies of attendance interventions to understand what strategies are effective at addressing absenteeism. My research builds off of an ongoing meta-analysis, in which we conducted a literature search across multiple databases to identify eligible studies according to the following criteria:

·       Publication Year: 2016 to present

·       Population: students in pre-K to 12

·       Setting: schools in US

·       Intervention: programs/policies to improve attendance

·       Study Design: RCTs; studies with strong causal design

·       Data Source: student-level administrative data

·       Outcome: measures of school attendance/absenteeism

·       Document Type: peer-reviewed, dissertations, technical reports, working papers

However, a meta-analytic approach has several limitations. Primarily, we can only compare results across studies if the outcome is exactly the same. Because we need a sufficient number of effect sizes to have enough power to conduct an adequate meta-analysis, we can only examine the most commonly reported measures of attendance (attendance rate and chronic absence). We must exclude studies that focus on other outcomes.

Therefore, my study will re-examine the literature using QCA (Ragin, 2014), a more flexible method that utilizes elements of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. By taking contextual factors into consideration (Bingham et al., 2019), QCA is able to investigate why an intervention might work by looking at individual components or conditions.

Each study I review will represent one case. The conditions will be the type of absenteeism intervention or intervention component. Thus, I will examine not only what interventions are effective, but also what components, and in what combinations. The outcome variable will be a binary indicator for whether a study demonstrated an effect on reducing absenteeism. I will also conduct separate analyses by schooling level: preschool, elementary, middle, and high school.

Preliminary Findings

I have over 30 eligible studies so far. The five most common intervention/component types are: relationship building/mentoring, family engagement, parent information (including “nudge” interventions), classroom lessons, and whole-school approaches (including early warning systems). Common outcomes include: attendance rate, chronic absenteeism, days absent, truancy, and excused/unexcused absences.

Implications

Interventions for absenteeism often have multiple components and are implemented for different age groups. My study will answer important policy-relevant questions: “what works?” “what about it works?” and “for whom?”

Author

• Philip Kim, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author