Given the staggering costs of absenteeism in the workplace, a better understanding of its causes and consequences is needed. Therefore, items from an interview by Nicholson and Payne (1987) were incorporated into an absenteeism survey administered to 118 working students. A factor analysis of 13 potential causes of absenteeism yielded two interpretable factors which were Involuntary and Voluntary. Scores on the Voluntary factor were marginally correlated −.17 (p<.10) with the number of days absent in the last six months, whereas scores on the Involuntary factor were not (r = −.11, p >.10). These results are discussed in terms of how they help us to understand the complex construct of absenteeism.
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