Thesis

Anchored or unravelled: rethinking persistent absenteeism through school belonging

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2026
Thesis identifier
  • T17994
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202379468
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Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • This thesis addresses an important and timely question: What role does school belonging play in influencing school attendance among persistently absent young people? It addresses a significant gap in the literature examining how school belonging mediates school attendance and amplifies the voices of young people, highlighting the policy and practical implications. Study 1 is a scoping review of 73 studies that systematically maps the research on school attendance and belonging. It identifies key trends, methodological limitations, and a lack of youth voice and intervention-based research. The review highlights a field dominated by exploratory and cross-sectional studies, with limited causal analysis. From this, a preliminary conceptual model is developed to illustrate how belonging impacts attendance across various systems. Study 2 builds on these findings by engaging persistently absent young people through two iterative exploratory and confirmatory semi-structured interviews. These sought to understand their experiences of school belonging and attendance, assess the relevance of the conceptual model, and co-design a candidate intervention. The young people’s views aligned strongly with relational themes in the model but also identified areas needing refinement, such as the role of mental health, peer interactions, and gender. The candidate intervention was judged to be feasible and appropriate, although further research is required. Together, these findings confirm that school belonging is a dynamic, context-dependent factor that plays a pivotal role in attendance. It can both anchor school attendance and unravel it. Belonging is influenced by relational, individual, and systemic factors and is experienced as both protective and fragile. This research highlights the pressing need for flexible, youth-informed, and relationally grounded interventions. It underscores the importance of ongoing research to pilot and evaluate the developed intervention, refining its application in educational settings.
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2025

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