Both students and advisors often assume that a lighter academic load during the first year of college will result in greater student success. This article examines that assumption. Academic load is measured in terms of credit load and course difficulty; success is measured in terms of GPA and retention. The experiences of a sample of first-year students at a comprehensive regional university are examined. While the credit loads for which students register are related to academic ability and prior academic success, the difficulty level of courses for which these students register is not. Variation in student credit loads is reduced because weaker students are required to take developmental courses but do not drop a corresponding number of college-credit courses. Contrary to common assumptions, students who register for more credits tend to earn higher GPAs and have greater retention even after controlling for academic ability, prior academic success, on-campus employment hours, and other background characteristics. Students who register for more difficult courses, however, tend to earn lower GPAs and experience lower retention. Any effect of credit load on retention appears to work through GPA. While much of the effect of course difficulty on retention also works through GPA, course difficulty does have a separate negative effect on 1-year retention. While the possibilities that weaker students might be more successful with lighter credit loads or that stronger students might be more successful with more difficult courses were investigated, no significant interactions between prior academic success, academic load, and success were found.
Research which reports the effects of global and contextual organizational characteristics on patterns of female and black participation in organizational work forces is reviewed. Explanations of work-force composition include economic and political conditions internal and external to the organization. Findings are organized and summarized by means of twelve propositional statements. Moderate support exists to l i i formalization, occupational composition of the work force, and community values to the sexual and racial composition of the organization's work force. Centralization, executive characteristics, unionization, community labor-force composition, and community supply of labor have also been linked to work-force composition-but less frequently or less consistently. Slack resources, demand for labor, visibility of operations, and dependence on government contracts also affect work-force compositions-but indirectly. The review concludes by noting limitations in the existing literature and by making suggestions regarding future research.
The authors conducted an exploratory secondary analysis of 1434 subjects taken from the 1989 USA General Social Survey. The focus of inquiry was what people in various social roles and role configurations would spend more time on if they had an opportunity to do so. Would they choose to spend more time on paid work, housework, family, friends, leisure or relaxation? The authors hypothesize that particular roles and role configurations influence ideal time allocation and time pressure. Worker, parent and spouse roles were analyzed separately and in conjunction with the gender role. T-tests were computed for comparisons of means between groups. Particular roles and role configurations did influence ideal time allocation, but time differential pressure by men and women in selected roles was not confirmed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.