School Attendance Problems and Youth Psychopathology: Structural Cross-Lagged Regression Models in Three Longitudinal Data Sets
Open accessAbstract
This study tests a model of reciprocal influences between absenteeism and youth psychopathology using 3 longitudinal datasets (Ns = 20,745, 2,311, and 671). Participants in 1st through 12th grades were interviewed annually or biannually. Measures of psychopathology include self-, parent-, and teacher-report questionnaires. Structural cross-lagged regression models were tested. In a nationally representative data set (Add Health), middle school students with relatively greater absenteeism at Study Year 1 tended toward increased depression and conduct problems in Study Year 2, over and above the effects of autoregressive associations and demographic covariates. The opposite direction of effects was found for both middle and high school students. Analyses with 2 regionally representative data sets were also partially supportive. Longitudinal links were more evident in adolescence than in childhood.
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Depressive symptoms, accompanied by fatigue and decreased interest, can make the school day unpleasant and exacerbate withdrawal behaviors.
“Depressive symptoms, accompanied by fatigue and decreased interest, can make the school day an unpleasant experience and exacerbate withdrawal behaviors”
From “So That You Can Feel Well”: Perspectives of Students with Social, Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties on Factors that Support School Attendance (2025) · cites this paper as Wood et al., 2012
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“Depressive symptoms, accompanied by fatigue and decreased interest, can make the school day an unpleasant experience and exacerbate withdrawal behaviors (Wood et al., 2012).”
- Authors
- Wood, J. J., Lynne-Landsman, S. D., Langer, D. A., Wood, P. A., Clark, S. L., Mark Eddy, J., & Ialongo, N.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- University of Florida
- Boston University (US)
- Child and Adolescent Services Research Center
- Oregon Social Learning Center
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wood, Jeffrey J
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-01-01
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 351-366
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- PMC
- PMC3266956
- OpenAlex
- W2012193052
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 15.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH081087, R03MH081087)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P01- HD31921, P01HD031921)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Keywords
- school absenteeism, youth psychopathology, depression, conduct problems, reciprocal effects, adolescence, junior high school students, high school students, Add Health, self-report, parent report, teacher reports
- MeSH terms
- Absenteeism, Adolescent, Anxiety Disorders, Child, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mass Screening, Personality Assessment, Personality Inventory, Phobic Disorders, Psychometrics, Psychopathology, Regression Analysis, Statistics as Topic, Comorbidity, Risk Assessment, Conduct Disorder
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