Psychosocial Factors Predicting First-Year College Student Success

Abstract

Student success is at the heart of the educational enterprise. College success helps students to meet long-term personal and career goals and provides a range of monetary, psychosocial, and physical benefits (Baum & Ma, 2007). For years, concern has been expressed about graduation rates (Swail, 2004). Only slightly more than half (57%) of full-time students first going to a 4-year institution seeking a bachelor's degree end up achieving that goal within 6 years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010, Indicator 21). Furthermore, given the high rate of students who discontinue their education at their original institution, retention is a popular topic within provides a reference list of over 1,400 publications on student retention. In addition, the entrepreneurial market has developed numerous consulting organizations that aid universities in increasing retention.Retaining students until graduation is often a direct fulfillment of the mission of institutions of higher learning. Colleges and universities are concerned with preparing students for productive roles in society. Students who terminate their education prior to graduation lose the time and finances that they have invested in the educational process without gaining the benefits of a degree. Admitting a student into the institution carries with it a certain level of commitment on the part of the institution to support the success of the student. Secondarily, retention is of concern to institutions for financial reasons. When students discontinue, a university is faced with the loss of campus resources that have been invested in the student as well as the loss of future revenue in the form of tuition.Students discontinuing their education may reflect a failure on the part of the institution to support students' progress or respond to students' needs. Colleges and universities have invested a great amount of money in retention services (e.g., preparation courses, first-year seminars, academic success centers, advising interventions, tutorial programs, and counseling) in the hopes of retaining students through graduation. These represent substantial investments to improve student opportunities for success. Seidman (2005) indicated that promoting student success involves early identification of individual needs followed by a prescription for action.Psychosocial learning factors are useful points of intervention for professionals to actively promote student success (Krumrei & Newton, 2009). Institutions of higher education are in need of assessments of psychosocial learning factors that can be used to customize interventions to students' characteristics . Given institutional cost Psychosocial Factors 4 restraints, it would benefit colleges and universities to make use of tools in house rather than allocating substantial funding toward private consulting organizations promising retention results. Measuring College Student SuccessTinto (1987, 2005) observed that efforts to promote student success are hampered when research focuses on student attrition ra...

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“…Their confidence also helped them to leave home and strategically pursue the academic networks they needed to be successful at the four-year college. Krumrei-Mancuso et al (2013) stated that academic efficacy was the key to students' academic success. The students from this study commented on small classes, and supportive college personnel at FCC to help them envision enrollment in Tier 1 schools.…”

Practicing Professional Values: Factors Influencing Involvement in Social Work Student Organizations

“…In general, students who are involved in campus activities experience greater gains in cognitive and affective development, achieve greater academic success, report higher life satisfaction, and build more life skills. (Harper & Quaye, 2007;Krumrei-Mancuso, Newton, Kim, & Wilcox, 2013;Montelongo, 2002;Strapp & Farr, 2010). In general, students who are involved in campus activities experience greater gains in cognitive and affective development, achieve greater academic success, report higher life satisfaction, and build more life skills.…”

Tertiary Academic Success: A Review of Factors in the Context of Ecological Model

“…There is an agreement among researchers on association of high self efficacy with tertiary academic success Krumrei-Mancuso, Newton, Kim, & Wilcox, 2013;Trigwell et al, 2013;Yip, 2012). Some researchers have specifically focused on academic self efficacy (Honicke & Broadbent, 2016;Putwain, Sander, & Larkin, 2013;Richardson et al, 2012) which is the confidence in one's ability to successfully attain educational goals (Putwain et al, 2013).…”