Withdrawn at home, withdrawn from school: Internalizing behaviors and school absenteeism in low-income children post-Covid.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, school absenteeism has remained severely elevated, with significant repercussions for educational and social-emotional outcomes. In order to increase understanding of factors contributing to absenteeism, this study examined the relationship between internalizing behaviors and school attendance and the extent to which that relationship is moderated by age and gender among low-income children living in a community of concentrated poverty (N=145; age range=5-17). Poisson regression models found that internalizing behaviors were significantly associated with school attendance. Age significantly moderated this relationship such that higher internalizing scores were associated with higher rates of absences among older children while younger children were predicted to have the same rate of absences regardless of internalizing score. Associations between internalizing and absenteeism did not vary significantly across gender. These findings extend prior work linking higher levels of internalizing with absenteeism and expands knowledge to a sample of children living in an area of concentrated poverty, assessed after pandemic-era school shutdowns. We discuss implications for schools and school-based practitioners for linking attendance and mental health systems, including building opportunities to partner with families and targeting mental health interventions to younger students as a preventive absenteeism practice.