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Determinants of withdrawal behavior: An exploratory study

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Abstract

Research on college persistence has typically classified nonreturnees as dropouts. Recently, this practice has been criticized by Tinto (1987) who argues that such a practice merges together different types of withdrawal behavior whose determinants may vary as a function of the particular departure behavior under consideration. This paper empirically examines whether the determinants of decisions to withdraw from the institution are similar to those affecting decisions to transfer to other institutions of higher education for the 1984 entering freshman class at a large southern institution. Results provide support for Tinto's proposition of differentiating between different types of voluntary withdrawal behavior. While institutional commitment, academic performance, finance attitudes, and student perceptions of faculty concern for student development and teaching discriminated between persisters and dropouts, only final institutional commitment and final goal commitment discriminated between persisters and transfers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. North Carolina State University, USA

    Bruce I. Mallette

  2. Arizona State University, USA

    Alberto F. Cabrera

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  1. Bruce I. Mallette
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  2. Alberto F. Cabrera
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An earlier version of this paper was presented before the 1990 American Educational Research Association annual meeting.

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Mallette, B.I., Cabrera, A.F. Determinants of withdrawal behavior: An exploratory study. Res High Educ 32, 179–194 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00974436

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00974436

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