Drop-Out and Transfer-Out Intentions: The Role of Socio-Cognitive Factors

Abstract

Academic attrition is a worldwide problem representing a significant economic loss and a disadvantage for students in terms of health and career prospects. We focus on the roles of academic skills, academic self-efficacy, and students' integration in exploring their relation to attrition intentions. Based on existing research, we expected a negative relation between academic skills and attrition intentions, with academic self-efficacy and students' integration as possible mediators. Furthermore, it was expected that this relationship would be dependent on the outcome variable being measured (i.e., drop-out, transfer university, and transfer study field intentions). These hypotheses were investigated among Norwegian university students in a questionnaire study (total N = 756). Results supported, as predicted, the mediatory roles of academic self-efficacy and students' integration. Importantly, significant variability was indicated in comparison of the different outcome measures, with academic self-efficacy having a larger mediation effect in case of drop-out and transfer study field intentions. We conclude that academic self-efficacy is important in understanding the relationship between students' academic skills and attrition intentions. Our results provide an evidence that might facilitate development of assistance programs aiming to reduce academic attrition.

Predictive model of the dropout intention of Chilean university students

“…Most studies address variables related to academic motivation, mental health, sociodemographic, academic engagement, satisfaction of basic needs, and academic achievement. Although scarce, studies exploring motivational cognitive variables were identified: (a) Díaz-Mujica et al ( 2019) addressed motivation, performance, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and career satisfaction; the variables with the strongest relationships were career satisfaction (d = 0.645) and intrinsic motivation (d = 0.249); (b) Bäulke et al (2018) found that the most relevant variables were academic procrastination (R 2 = 0.16), and motivation regulation (R 2 = −0.38); (c) Bernardo et al (2022) reported that career satisfaction and expectations (d = 0.70) and career engagement (d = 0.17) were the most predictive variables of dropout intention; and (d) Nemtcan et al (2020) found that variables such as academic skills (β = −0.074), academic self-efficacy (β = −0.434), and students' integration (β = −0.287) were the most relevant.…”

“…At a theoretical level, it proposes a new model that helps to progress in research on the influence of cognitive-motivational and social variables and their influence on dropout. Especially considering that there are multiple studies that address the influence of affective-motivational variables on the intention to drop out, but there are few studies that address the relationship between cognitive variables and their influence on the intention to drop out (Nemtcan et al, 2020).…”

Factors determining dropouts from higher education institutions

“…In today's context, the problem of dropping out from studies remains relevant and it is a global problem that not only causes significant economic losses at the national level but also affects students' health and career prospects (Nemtcan et al 2020), reduces a country's productivity and economic competitiveness (Saftaa and Stana, 2020) and encourages leaders and lecturers of higher education institutions to continuously search for ways to reduce the number of dropouts from the study process. To find more effective ways of minimising the problems associated with student withdrawal, it is necessary to delve deeper into the attitudes and dispositions of students towards their studies and to analyse the reasons for terminating studies Lee and Lee (2020) point out that it is important for Higher Education Institutions to identify students who wish to withdraw from their studies in advance, as such information would allow them to develop targeted strategies to stem student attrition.…”

Quality of life, psychosocial characteristics, and study skills affecting recruits’ intention to quit Basic Military Training

“…Quitting is regarded as the last step of a multi-step process (Rumberger & Rotermund, 2012 ). Before students actually quit, they are likely to develop intentions to quit (Eicher et al, 2014 ; Mashburn, 2000 ; Nemtcan et al, 2020 ). Therefore, investigating intention to quit and associated indicators may add valuable insights to the BMT drop out problem.…”