Towards a better understanding of sickness absence in adolescence:A qualitative study among Dutch intermediate vocational education students

An adequate approach to sickness absence can reduce school dropout which is a major problem in Intermediate Vocational Education (IVE). This practice-based study explores the sickness absence reasons and factors influencing reporting the sickness, from a student’s perspective. Semistructured interviews were held until saturation. Data were collected and analysed by a multidisciplinary research team including youth health care physicians working with IVE students. The results show that, according to the students, reasons for sickness reporting were health-related or related to problems at home... Mehr ...