Unexcused Repeated Absence in Grade Nine in Sweden: The Role of Victimization, Academic Factors, and Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Problematic school absence is a growing concern across Europe, with significant implications for students’ educational outcomes and well-being. Although academic pressure and school support have been widely studied as determinants of absenteeism, less is known about the roles of mental health and peer victimization. This study estimated the adjusted associations between teacher support, academic demands, bullying, and sexual harassment victimization (including cyber victimization), and poor mental health and unexcused repeated absence (URA) among male and female ninth-grade students in Sweden. Using self-reported survey data, the associations of these factors, while adjusting for academic demands and family support, were analysed by means of multinomial regression. Depressive symptoms showed a robust association with URA across genders. In addition, cyber sexual harassment and low teacher support were associated with URA among both genders, whereas among girls, both cyber and in-person sexual harassment and high school demands demonstrated significant associations. By introducing cyber-victimization as a contemporary risk factor and showing that traditional school pressures lose part of their significance in adjusted models, the study highlights the primacy of psychosocial risks in explaining absenteeism. Future research should investigate longitudinal associations as well as mediating and moderating mechanisms, particularly the role of depressive symptoms, and should enhance school monitoring systems by integrating validated measures of mental health and sexualized victimization.