Is there a relationship between mental ill health and absence?

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in school absenteeism. The absence rate for the 2023/24 academic year represent a near doubling of rates of absenteeism compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In conjunction with the rise in school absences, there has been a marked increase in mental health problems among children and adolescents. NHS data from 2023 shows that 21% of 8 to 16 year-olds have a probable mental health problem, which is an increase of 7 percentage points since 2017 (NHS England, 2024).  Further, it is estimated that 1.5 million young people and children in England are going to need support for their mental health as a direct result of the pandemic in the coming years (O’Shea 2021).

The simultaneous rise in both school absenteeism and mental ill health raises questions about their potential relationship. Data show that the two are rising alongside each other, but the extent to which poor mental health influences school absences remains unclear.

Improving the evidence about this relationship is important for developing effective policies and interventions that can address both absenteeism and the mental health issues that are potentially contributing to it.

The report found that:

• Mental ill health is one of the causal factors of absence in Year 11 students
• Poorer mental health strongly predicts authorised absences
• Unauthorised absences are not predicted well by poor mental health, with other factors such as socioeconomic variables better predicting these rates
• Students being eligible for free school meals and those having special educational needs or a long-standing illness or disability predicted high levels of absence
• Children from single-parent households were also absent more than those from two-parent households.

The report uses data from the longitudinal study of young people in England (LSYPE2): cohort 2.