Predictors of absenteeism at senior secondary level

Pages: 121-124
Shalini Barthwal and Manju Pandey (Department of Psychology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand)

In India, school absenteeism has been the focus of study in the primary and upper primary level, as the nation’s main policy has been to increase enrolments in schools. The senior secondary classes (i.e., class XI & XII) have never been in the focus when it to comes being absent from school without any rational cause. This research gap lays the foundation for the present study with the focus on the mental health and youth problems of senior secondary students who are frequently absent from school. A mental health and youth problem analysis of 200 students was done from Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand using Mental Health Battery (Singh & Gupta, 2005) and Youth Problem Inventory (Verma, 1996). Intelligence came out as the strongest predictor of absenteeism followed by emotional stability, family problems, school problems, self-concept and autonomy.