NCJ Number
207100
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 457-466
Date Published
October 2004
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study examined any links between nine personality traits and the frequency of absences from school among a sample of middle-school and high-school students.
Abstract
Participants were 282 12th-grade students, 321 10th-grade students, and 248 7th-grade students. The "Big Five" personality traits measured were agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness. The four narrower personality traits measured were aggression, optimism, tough-mindedness, and work drive. The "Big Five" personality traits were measured with the Adolescent Personal Style Inventory, and the four narrower personality traits were each measured with a separate scale. Data on school attendance were obtained from the records of the county school system. As hypothesized, the study found that openness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability were negatively related to absences for all three grade levels; whereas, agreeableness was negatively related to absences for the 10th and 12th graders. As a set, the "Big Five" traits accounted for 12 percent, 6 percent, and 12 percent of the variance in absences at the 7th, 10th, and 12th grades, respectively. Although the narrower personality traits of aggression, optimism, and work drive were significantly related to school absences, only work drive added incremental variance to the prediction of absences beyond the "Big Five" traits. The findings suggest the potential for profiling absence-prone students and the provision of a benchmark against which the effects of other absence-related variables and programs can be assessed. 4 tables and 81 references