Modeling American Graduate Students’ Perceptions Predicting Dropout Intentions

Abstract

Aim/Purpose: Dropout is a critical problem in graduate college programs across disciplines and institutions. Yet relatively little research has assessed graduate students’ motivations for dropping out across disciplines, or systematically modeled perceptions that contribute to dropout intentions. Background: Perceptions drive critical decisions that people make about their lives, and a core set of these perceptions consistently predict adults’ educational intentions and choices. This study investigates how a set of critical perceptions predict the strength of graduate students’ dropout intentions. Methodology: This study models their differential contributions using structural equation modeling, in AMOS®. Participants were 886 masters and doctoral students across programs and colleges in a Southwestern university in the United States. Findings: The best-fitting model demonstrated most significant influences on graduate students’ dropout intentions were predicted by: satisfaction with the overall graduate experience (not just program-of-study), self-efficacy for professional success (not just coursework), and the Perceived Graduate Experience Gap (expectations vs. experience in graduate school). Model fit was excellent for the whole group, and demonstrated some nuanced differences for subgroups, notably by degree type and point-in-program. Recommendations for Practitioners: These findings illuminate considerations useful to graduate faculty and program administrators concerned about improving retention and completion. They can inform policies and practice for preventing and reducing graduate student dropout.

Validation of the Early University Dropout Intentions Questionnaire (EUDIQ-R)

“…The third and final factor, satisfaction, refers to students' satisfaction with the choice of degree course and whether it meets their expectations, as well as the sense of learning something important for their future and their interest in the course content. In terms of satisfaction with the chosen degree course, the results from Ambiel & Barros (2018), Han &Kang, (2016), andHardre et al, (2019), among others, agree with our findings that it is an important variable for predicting the intention to drop out. In addition, as noted by Diniz et al (2018), the course meeting expectations is one of the factors to consider when making decisions about remaining on a degree course.…”

Progress-Oriented Workshops for Doctoral Well-being: Evidence From a Two-Country Design-Based Research

“…Further, once it can be measured (i.e., the student has dropped out), it is often too late to intervene or support the affected doctoral student. Therefore, a commonly-used shorter-term proxy measure of attrition is dropout ideation (Hardre et al, 2019;Litalien & Guay, 2015;Peltonen et al, 2017), often measured through a single-item question (e.g., Peltonen et al, 2017) or with instruments inspired in similar constructs like suicidal ideation (e.g., Posner et al, 2011).…”

Supported to Stay in School; How Students’ Perceptions of the Psychosocial Learning Environment are Related to Intentions to Quit Upper Secondary School

“…This has raised some particular issues, such as the incorporation of engagement in the process of motivation. Also, considering the concept of intentions to quit school, its nature and ties with other motivational concepts have required a conscious navigation between an understanding of it as a proxy for dropout behavior (e.g., Hardre et al, 2019), as an intention to change educational direction (e.g., , as an aspect of student engagement (e.g., Garvik, 2017), or as a response to lack of motivation (e.g., which has led the student's goal direction (intentions) away from school. As described earlier, the latter has functioned as the current understanding of the phenomenon.…”