Skipping Class: An Analysis of Absenteeism among First-Year College Students

Author(s): Gary Wyatt

Source: Teaching Sociology, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Jul., 1992), pp. 201-207
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1319061
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 SKIPPING CLASS: AN ANALYSIS OF ABSENTEEISM AMONG
FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS*

GARY WYATT
Emporia State University

This study explored class absenteeism among first-year college students. I analyzed
variables to assess possible effects on missing class. The results suggested that dislik
class was associated positively with absenteeism from that class. Further analysis confi
the following: time spent studying was associated negatively with absenteeism from cl
that students liked as well as from those they disliked;frequency of alcohol consumption
associated positively with absenteeism from disliked classes but had no effect on liked c
being female was associated positively with absenteeism from classes liked as well as disl
finally, the previous semester's grade point average was associated negatively with abse
ism from classes that students disliked but not from those they liked. The implications of
findings are discussed.

One of the most perplexing things that you're batting .666 on attendance, you're do-
I have
ing well"
noticed about college life is the propensity of(cited in Boyer 1987, p. 140). That is,
many students to skip class. As a naiveone-third
youngof the students will not be in atten-
danceand
first-year student, I was both surprised on any given day. While writing this
intrigued by this behavior. Why wouldpaper I spoke with a number of professors who
so many
people spend so much money on tuition teachand
at three different universities. Most told
then not show up to get what they paid for?
me that approximately 20 to 40 percent of the
Some of my fellow students attended classes
undergraduates enrolled in their classes are
sporadically at best and only on test absent
days from
at each class meeting.
worst. Some got the lecture notes from friends,
Because skipping class affects the quality
of a student's
read the text and hoped that was enough, or education as well as the morale
simply did not worry about it at all. of the faculty, it is important to learn more
Later I realized that paying tuition about students who skip class and their reasons
gave
people much more than the opportunity for doing
to so. Thus the purpose of this research
enroll in and attend courses. It bestowed a was to explore this subject in greater detail.
status on them as well, a status that allowed Specifically I wanted to measure a number of
them to attend football and basketball games, variables and determine their relationship with
to participate in intramural sports, to establish
first-year students' propensity to miss class. I
social relationships, to join clubs, to use uni-
focused on first-year students because, as Up-
versity facilities, and to have a good time. For
craft and Gardner (1989, p. 1) note, there is
some, tuition seemed to be little more than"overwhelming
an evidence that student success
expensive cover charge that allowed them is largely determined during the freshman
entrance into an exciting social world-a year." I agree, however, with Katchadourian
world that was often apart from learning and and Boli (1985) who argue that first-year stu-
class attendance.
dents differ from other students with regard to
As a result of my work as a sociologist, a their academic attitudes and behaviors. Conse-
professor, and an academic advisor, I continue quently I will not generalize my results beyond
to be concerned about absenteeism from class. first-year students. On the basis of the literature
Others share this concern. A professor quoted and personal experience, I selected the follow-
in a Carnegie Foundation Report stated, "Ifing variables: 1) liking or disliking the class, 2)
living arrangements, 3) time spent studying, 4)
* This is a revised version of a paper presented at the frequency of alcohol consumption, 5) time
1991 meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, held in spent workingat part- and full-time jobs, 6)
Des Moines. I wish to thank three anonymous reviewers for
their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts ofgender, 7) age,
8) parental income, and 9) pre-
this paper. vious semester's grade point average.

Teaching Sociology, 1992, Vol. 20 (July:201-207) 201

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 202 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY

I acknowledge These problems

that include buttheare not limited to
subje
itself may seem absenteeism, drowsiness,
peripheral acting out, poor per- t
variables. I contend, formance on tests, and unfinished homework
however
edge of the relationships assignments. I have discussed the negative ef- whi
these variables and absenteeism will be useful fects of excessive drinking on academic per-
to many teachers. For example I believe that to formance with my academic advisees. On the
a degree teachers may be able to minimize the basis of this information, I hypothesized that
effects of some of these variables. Also they frequency of alcohol consumption would be
may feel less demoralized if they realize that associated positively with missing class.
factors unrelated to teaching quality account The next variable I examined was the num-
for absences among students. Finally the ber of hours a student works each week at a
amount of variance in absenteeism explained full- or part-time job. I suspected that the more
by these variables, as reported in the "results" hours a student worked each week, the greater
section, makes them difficult to ignore. would be the likelihood of conflicts with class
I hypothesized that students would be more attendance. Some students have jobs that oc-
likely to miss classes which they disliked than cupy them late into the night, which may make
those which they liked. My argument here was it difficult for them to attend classes consis-
intuitive: people are likely to repeat experi- tently. Others occasionally may find them-
ences that they find enjoyable and rewarding selves scheduled to work when they should be
(Blackman 1974). I believed this point would in class. Thus it is reasonable to hypothesize
hold true for class attendance. that as the number of hours a student worked
Living arrangements have a significant im- each week increased, the number of classes
missed also would increase.
pact on college students (Boyer 1987). Upcraft
(1989, p. 142) stated, "Freshmen who live in Another variable I included was gender. A
residence halls are more likely to succeed in significant amount of evidence suggests that
college than those who live elsewhere." Clearly, the classroom is a more hostile place for fe-
first-year students who live on campus may be males than for males (Cherry 1975). In a re-
integrated better into campus life. They are in a view of the literature, Block (1983, p. 1344)
better position to participate in resident hall and reported, "Teachers have been observed to in-
other campus activities, and they may have more teract more with boys, to give boys more posi-
friends on campus. I hypothesized that students tive feedback, and to direct more criticism to-
who lived off campus would miss more class wards girls." These patterns also seem to hold
meetings than students who did not. Attending true at the college and university level (Feld-
class regularly may be less convenient for theseman 1974; Hochschild 1975). If, in fact, the
students. Problems such as bad weather, car classroom is a more hostile place for females,
trouble, and the like could be more problematic they are likely to miss more classes.
for those who live off campus. I also included students' age in the study.
I also examined time spent in studying. I I suspected that because older students often
believed that those who studied diligently sacrifice more to attend college, they would
would be more likely to attend class regularly. miss fewer classes than younger students. I
In view of the alternatives facing college stu- measured and included parental income be-
dents as to how to spend their time, it seemed cause of evidence suggesting that children of
clear to me that those who choose to study are upper-income families have higher levels of
more dedicated to academic achievement. Fur- educational attainment and achievement (see
thermore, the more effort a student invests in Aitkin 1982; Astin 1964; Bank, Slavings, and
studying, the more likely a student is to find Biddle 1990; McCartin and Meyer 1988). On
class attendance rewarding (Michaels and the basis of these findings I suspected that
Miethe 1989). Finally students may view in- students from upper-income families would
creased study as an investment of time and attend more regularly than students from
energy that would be undermined by excessive lower-income families.
absenteeism. Thus I hypothesized that as time The final variable I included was grade
spent studying increased, the likelihood of point average. I believed that students who had
missing class would decrease. a history of earning good grades would be less
Alcohol consumption is associated with a likely to miss class than students who did not.
variety of problems for students (Dean 1989). Students who earn good grades like college

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 SKIPPING CLASS 203

Table 1. Means and Number o

Variables Means N
Missing classes liked 3.09 107
Missing classes disliked 5.31 104
Frequency of alcohol consumption (scale of 1 to 5) 2.38 107
Hours spent working per week 12.68 107
Time spent studying (scale of 1 to 8) 4.32 106
Age 20.84 106
Parents'income (scale of 1 to 6) 3.72 96
Grade point average 2.70 110

more than students who

to respond do
based on not
memory. (Wyatt
Despite the po-
Melhorn 1991); therefore itto seemed
tential for error due faulty memory and reas
the
to assume that those
desire to who liked
give "acceptable" answers,college
I am con-
vinced the
be more apt to attend data are regularly
class useful. The results of than this
who did not. study, however, like the results of many other
Despite this line studies
of reasoning,
that rely on self-reported one can
data, should
gue that I have stated the
be interpreted with case backw
caution.
Clearly it is possible to contend
I measured the dependent variables thatbyre
attendance affectsasking
grades
the students more
to state how strongly
many times
grades affect attendance. It is
they missed the classes they also
liked andpossib
how
Chambliss (1981) reported,
many times they missed that some
the classes stu
they dis-
who earn good grades
liked duringmiss
the spring class
semester. freque
(I measured
without any negative consequences.
the number of individual class sessions mis- B
my argument on Bem's
sed rather than the number of perception
(1967) days missed.)
ory, however, I suggest that
The mean for missing an
classes liked equally
was 3.09, s
case can be madewith
fora range my
from 0 tohypothesis.
15. The mean for
stated that attitudes and
missing classesbehaviors are
disliked was 5.31, with a a r
tion of people's perception
range from 0 to 38. of their comp
cies and of attributions
The students based on their
were asked to indicate those p
tions. Consequently people who earn
living arrangements. Fifty-five percent of the
grades are likely to develop more positiv
students lived on campus in the residence
tudes towards college and to behave acc
halls, 20 percent lived off campus in nearby
ingly. To test this hypothesis, I found it n
apartments, and 15 percent lived "at home"
sary to measure grade point average
with relatives. Ten percent of the students, all
point in time and number of classes mis
of whom were commuters, had "other" living
another. (I will discuss the entire proced
arrangements.
greater detail in the "method" section.)
I asked the students to indicate on a scale
of 1 to 8, how much time they spent studying
METHOD each week. A score of 1 meant that no time was
spent studying, and a score of 8 represented 30
Near the end of the spring 1989 semester,hoursI or more. I also asked them to report how
mailed a questionnaire to 170 randomly often
se-they consumed alcohol during a given
semester.
lected second-semester, first-year students at Their responses were measured on a
scale
a public university in the midwest that enrollsof 1 to 5 (1=never, 5=nearly every day).
To measure work time I asked the students
more than 6,000 students. I had obtained a list
of such students from the registration office
to state the average number of hours they worked
at the university and obtained my sampleeach of
week at full- or part-time jobs. The students
also were asked to state their gender and their
170 using a random numbers table. I received
age
110 completed questionnaires for a return in years. I measured parental income by
rate
of 65 percent. asking the students to indicate how much money
This survey was administered towardtheir
theparents made each year on a scale of 1 to 6
end of the semester and required the students
(1=$9,999 or less, 6=$75,000 or more).

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 204 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY

Table 2. Correlations between Missing C

Variable Correlation
Classes Liked

Time studying -.28*

Frequency of alcohol consumption .15
Hours working .06
Age .09
Parents' income .24*

Grade point average -.25*

Classes Disliked

Time studying -.31"

Frequency of alcohol consumption .25*
Hours working .01
Age -.21
Parents' income .28*

Grade point average -.33*

"*Statistically significant at <.05

The registration office

and for classes supplied
that they did not like the mean
was 5.31. I tested
point average for each the difference between
participat
these means
for the semester with a matched-samples
preceding thet-test ad
(Kushner and De Maio 1980).
of this questionnaire. Table The results1 p
means and the number
supported my hypothesis that of resp
students are
each variable discussed above,
more likely to miss classes they do not like e
than classes they like (t=4.06, p?.01). I also
dence and gender.
tested the difference between
I tested the research the means of
hypothese
missing class for residence
lyzing the difference in was means
also tested: a
ducting ordinarythe resultsleast
revealed no relationship
squares between (O
absenteeism and living arrangements.
sion analysis. Significance levels
the .05 level. I used one-tailed t-tests for the
OLS REGRESSION
OLS analysis because the direction of rela-
tionships was specified. The critical value of When I regressed missing classes liked on time
t for this level is plus or minus 1.66. spent studying, frequency of alcohol consump-
tion, hours working, gender, age, parents' in-
come, and grade point average, 25 percent of
RESULTS the variance was explained (f=3.04, p<.0081;
see Table 3).
CORRELATIONS As predicted, time spent in studying was
associated negatively with missing classes
Table 2 shows the correlation coefficients for (b=-.58, t=-2.39), while being female
liked
was associated positively with missing
the interval and ordinal variables. Missing
classes liked was associated positively classes
with liked (b=1.79, t=2.45). None of the
parental income and negatively with othertime variables included in this regression
spent studying and previous grade point model
aver- were significant.
age. Missing classes disliked was associated When I regressed missing classes disliked
positively with frequency of alcohol on con-
the independent variables, 41 percent of the
sumption and parental income and negativelyvariance was explained (f=6.23, p<.0001). As
with time spent studying and previous grade
predicted, time spent studying was associated
point average. negatively with this variable (b=-1.03, t=-
2.11), as was previous grade point average
I assessed the effect of liking or disliking
a class on class absences by analyzing the
(b=-2.85, t=-3.12). Frequency of alcohol con-
means for these variables. The mean for miss-
sumption was associated positively with ab-
senteeism from classes disliked (b=1.72,
ing classes that the students liked was 3.09;

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 SKIPPING CLASS 205

Table 3. Unstandardized O
on Independent Variables
Variable

Classes Liked b/SE t

Time studying -.58/.24 -2.39*
Frequency of alcohol consumption .44/.27 1.53
Hours working .01/.02 .46
Gender 1.79/.73 2.45*
Age -.03/.08 -.43
Parents' income .28/.26 1.07
Grade point average -.71/.45 -1.55
R=.25**

Classes Disliked

Time studying -1.03/.49 -2.11*

Frequency of alcohol consumption 1.72/.57 3.01"
Hours working .05/.05 1.01
Gender 5.01/1.47 3.42*
Age -.20/.16 -1.22
Parents' income .67/.52 1.27
Grade point average -2.85/.91 -3.12*
R=.41**

*Statistically significant at <.05 (one-tailed test)

**Statistically significant at <.01 (f-test)

fessors who were not prepared: these students

t=3.01), as was being female (b=5.01, t=3.42).
None of the other variables included in this
felt they were wasting their time and money.
regression model were significant. Some students expressed discontent with
general education courses in which they were
required to enroll; they did not see the rele-
DISCUSSION vance of these courses. Consequently they
missed meetings of these classes. This find-
Student absenteeism from classes that ingtheysuggests that professors who teach gen-
eral education courses (a category that in-
dislike has important implications. At a recent
symposium, a student leader stated that cludes
the many lower-division sociology
most common complaint she hears courses) about should be more concerned with dem-
onstrating
teaching is that it is "so boring." Many of the the relevance of their respective
professors in attendance countered with disciplines.
the
argument that they are not performers; stu- This research suggests that good study
dents should judge them on their ability habits
to are important: students who study
more
educate, not on their ability to entertain. Bothmiss fewer classes. It seems to me that

arguments have legitimacy. Some professorscolleges and universities could do

many
should throw away their old, yellowedmuch notes more to enhance the emphasis on schol-
arship and study among students. Many of the
and come to class better prepared. Students,
first-year students whom I encounter did not
on the other hand, will find that with careful
attention and proper motivation, most know how to study when they came to the
lec-
tures are interesting. university. Others, who earned good grades in
high school although they did little home-
I explored this topic further by interview-
ing a number of first-year students aboutwork,the are shocked by the amount of home-
work
characteristics of classes that they liked and required. Many factors contribute to
disliked. Students liked classes where the in-
poor study habits, but more classroom discus-
sion ex-
structors were well prepared. In fact they of homework expectations and proper
study
pressed a great deal of frustration toward pro-habits may help.

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 206 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY

These findings CONCLUSIONSsuggest

also
and university officials, faculty
students should be aware of the effect of
Class absenteeism among first-year students
alcohol on missing class. Perhaps as instruc-
is affected by several variables. Yet despite
tors and student advisors we should become
the significant explanatory power of the vari-
more involved in educating our studentsables that I analyzed, other factors also should
about this problem. be explored. First do rates of absenteeism
Surprisingly time spent working at part- differ among colleges and universities? Are
and full-time jobs was not associated withstudents who attend state universities less
missing class. An additional analysis demon- likely to attend regularly than students at
strated that the number of hours worked each higher-priced private institutions? Second be-
week also did not affect grade point average.cause this study focused on first-year stu-
Apparently the students who missed classdents, it would be interesting to determine
were not absent because they were working,whether their behavior is comparable to that
and those students who worked did not suffer of other students. Third the issue of gender
academically. These findings are reassuring: emerged in the results of this study. Future
because many students must work in order toresearch should continue to focus on gender
afford college, I was pleased that they do notin an effort to understand more clearly the
differences between males' and females' be-
appear to be harmed by working. Perhaps we
havior and experiences at institutions of
can be less hesitant to suggest employment to
higher education. Fourth what is the effect of
needy students.
health and personal crises on class atten-
My hypothesis concerning gender was
dance? Finally what kinds of policies and
confirmed. The females in my sample re-
practices will be most effective in minimizing
ported missing more class meetings than the
this problem? Some professors award points
males, particularly for classes disliked. If for I attendance; others give pop quizzes. Are
am at least partially correct in my suspicionthese types of attempts necessary? Are they
that females report higher rates of absentee-appropriate, regardless of the effects?
ism because the classroom is a less hospitable By exploring these issues we will be able
place for them, perhaps we should be more to improve the quality of education. We will
aware of the things that may happen in classmake the academy a more coherent, more pro-
to aggravate this situation. The literature citedductive, and more satisfying place for both
earlier suggests that teachers are often un- faculty and students.
aware of the negative expectations, attitudes,
and behaviors that they direct toward female
students. Perhaps more sensitivity on the part REFERENCES
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cisco: Jossey-Bass. Emporia State University. His areas of interest include
social welfare, marriage and the family, student culture and
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lifestyles, and social psychology. Currently he is conduct-
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ety 19:378-94. 66801.

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