Research and analysis

Relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16

Research into the extent to which students' poor mental health contributes to school absenteeism.

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 11 May 2025

Applies to England

Documents

The relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16: results from the longitudinal study of young people – cohort 2

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83870-610-4, RR1485

PDF, 1.82 MB, 71 pages

The relationship between mental ill health and absence in students aged 13 to 16: appendices

ODS, 524 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Details

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.

Published 11 May 2025