The purpose of this study was to identify how input and environmental
factors impact first-to-second year retention of undergraduate students at a large
Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). An additional purpose of the study was to
determine the usefulness of the Astin Typology as a predictive factor for student
retention. The sample for the study was 1,296 first-year students enrolled at the
University of Texas at San Antonio during the 2002, 2003, and 2004 academic
years.
Data used for the study included student responses to the Cooperative
Institutional Research Program (CIRP): Freshman Survey (to identify each
participant’s Astin type), gender, ethnicity, SAT scores, rank in high school class,
first-generation status, financial need, first-semester residence, entry-college,
semester credit hours attempted, academic course difficulty, participation in
Supplemental Instruction, and enrollment in a first-year seminar course. Both descriptive and univariate statistics were used to describe the sample
population, as well as the similarities and differences found to exist among the
seven Astin types. Three separate logistic regression analyses organized by
Astin’s I-E-O framework were conducted to develop a predictive model for
retention from the first-to-second year of college. Subsequent analyses were
conducted to identify the specific factors that were useful for predicting retention
for each of the seven Astin types.
The major findings of this study were:
• The most frequent Astin type identified within the sample population was
Status Striver
• The model that included both Input and Environmental factors was the
most accurate model for predicting retention
• Students who were classified as Hedonist, Status Striver, and
Uncommitted were less likely to be retained at this institution when all
other input and environmental factors were controlled.
• Environmental factors were most useful for predicting retention, in
particular, semester credit hours attempted that had an inverse
relationship with retention for all Astin types
• First-generation status, financial need, SAT score were not useful for the
prediction of retention
• First-year seminar course enrollment and participation in Supplemental
Instruction had a positive impact on retention This study provided evidence that the Astin typology is viable as a means of
retention among college student populations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3287 |
| Date | 2008 August 1900 |
| Creators | Wilkerson, Steven Lamar |
| Contributors | Bonner II, Fred |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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