Attendance behavior: A reevaluation of Latham and Pursell's conclusions

Abstract

G. P. Latham and E. D. Pursell (see record 1975-24318-001 ) suggested that the traditional focus on absenteeism may have been misguided. They argued that absenteeism is not a behavior but rather the absence of behavior; therefore, it would be better to be concerned with attendance rather than absenteeism. They presented data purported to demonstrate that attendance is a more reliable measure than absenteeism as well as more appealing theoretically. It is concluded in the present paper that attendance measures have few theoretical advantages over absenteeism measures and that the differences in reliability are limited. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)