Network Analysis of School Absence: Central Symptoms and Their Functions

Katarina Alanko^1,2*David Heyne³Martin Lagerström²Martin Knollman⁴

• ¹University of Turku, Turku, Finland
• ²Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland
• ³Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
• ⁴University of Duisburg-, Essen, Germany

Objective: School attendance problems (SAPs) often develop and persist through complex interactions among numerous influences. This study explored the relationships among symptoms reported by youths with SAPs. It also examined the relationships among the functions that those symptoms serve, with respect to school absence. Method: Self-reported symptoms and their functions were assessed via an online survey comprising the Inventory of School Attendance Problems. We analysed data from Finnish middle school students (M age = 14.9 years, range 12-17, gender: 40 % male, 57 % female, 3 % other) reporting school absence of >= 10%. There were 349 responses for symptoms and 333 responses for functions. Network analysis was used to identify the most central symptoms and functions (nodes) along with the associations between different symptoms, and the associations between different functions (edges). Results: Results indicated complex networks among the symptoms and among the functions. Depression was a central node in both the symptoms and functions networks, moderately linked to aggression, performance anxiety, and social anxiety. In the functions network, social anxiety was also central, and linked to agoraphobia/panic and problems with peers. All of the 13 nodes were strongly interlinked in both the symptoms network and the functions network, indicating strong co-occurrence of the symptoms and functions. Conclusions: The findings indicate that targeting depression could be important during interventions for SAPs, even when other symptoms are also salient.