The College Persistence Questionnaire: Development and Validation of an Instrument That Predicts Student Attrition

Abstract

The investigators reviewed the retention literature and developed a 53-item questionnaire and tested its validity. Component analysis of the responses of 2,022 students at four schools yielded six reliable factors: Institutional Commitment, Degree Commitment, Academic Integration, Social Integration, Support Services Satisfaction, and Academic Conscientiousness. A second study on 283 first-semester freshmen examined whether factor scores predicted which students returned for their sophomore year. Logistic regression found that three factors were statistically significant predictors of enrollment status, after controlling for high school class rank and standardized test scores: Institutional Commitment, Academic Integration, and Academic Conscientiousness. Strategies are provided for making use of scores based on differences between institutions and between individual students.

Counseling over Time as a Correlate of Non-Urgent Undergraduate Institutional Commitment

“…Institutional commitment has been defined as students' feeling that they made the right institutional choice (Davidson et al, 2009), and more general college student research has shown that it is the most proximal antecedent of undergraduate retention (Bean, 1980;Reason, 2009). Focusing on institutional commitment is consistent with prior calls to have UCCs studying variables consistent with more general academic missions and goals (Archer & Cooper, 1998;Corazzini, 1997).…”

“…Previous research (Blau et al, 2015) found an internal consistency reliability of this scale (coefficient alpha) was .92. Institutional commitment was measured using three of four items (Davidson et al, 2009). Items were: "(1) I am sure University X is the right place for me, (2) I am confident that I made the right decision to attend University X, and (3) I have no plans to transfer/leave University X."…”

“…Items were: "(1) I intend to persist in getting a college degree, (2) I am confident that I will graduate with a degree, and (3) no matter what it takes, I am committed to getting my college degree." These items were adapted from prior research (Davidson et al, 2009;Hausmann et al, jedp.ccsenet Vol. 7, No.…”

“…Given the difficulty of collecting student records, "intent to graduate" has often been used as a proxy for retention (e.g., Davidson et al, 2009;Hausmann, Ward Schofield, & Woods, 2007). When comparing Not-In-Counseling (NIC) with Initial Counseling Session (ICS), i.e., post-triage, pre-intake non-urgent undergraduate samples, Blau, DiMino, DeMaria, Beverly and Chessler (in press-a) found that institutional commitment was positively related to and explained additional significant variance in intent to graduate beyond controlled-for demographic variables (i.e., gender, ethnic background, residential status, parents' education, self-report GPA, and age) for both samples.…”

“…Research has long-argued (Tinto, 1975) that two forms of commitment-goal and institutional, are the immediate antecedents of undergraduate dropout decisions. Empirical research (Bean, 1980;Reason, 2009) has found that institutional commitment, i.e., feeling that you selected the right institution to attend (Davidson, Beck, & Milligan, 2009), is the most proximal antecedent of undergraduate retention. While research has shown that counseling has increased student retention (Lee, Olson, Locke, Testa Michelson, & Odes, 2009;Wilson, Mason, & Ewing, 1997), there has been less research investigating the relationship of counseling to client institutional commitment.…”