Understanding the Risk of Attrition in Undergraduate Engineering: Results from the Project to Assess Climate in Engineering

Elizabeth Litzler · Jacob T.N. Young

113 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Engineering Education

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Higher Education Research Studies Career Development and Diversity Evasion and Academic Success Factors

Abstract

Background Research on student attrition from engineering has focused on a variety of factors including demographics, campus climate, interactions with faculty and peers, and learning experiences. It remains unclear, however, whether qualitative differences in risk of attrition response patterns exist among students. Purpose (Hypothesis) The following research questions are the basis for this study: (1) What can be learned about the risk of attrition from engineering by grouping students using a novel method and multiple measures? (2) How are individual characteristics, student experiences, and perceptions related to qualitative differences among students in their risk of attrition? Design/Method Latent class analysis identifies qualitative differences among engineering students on measures of risk of attrition. A variety of covariates predict membership in each class using multinomial logistic regression. Results Three latent classes are identified with varying degrees of commitment to degree completion and interest in their engineering major. Individuals who are less confident, experience negative interactions with peers and instructors, and hold negative perceptions of engineering are less likely to be committed to engineering and more likely to be interested in other majors. Student experiences mediate the effects of key individual characteristics. Conclusions Certain types of student experiences are pivotal for a student's commitment to the major and commitment to degree completion. The risk of attrition is sensitive to a combination of student characteristics, experiences, and perceptions. The mediated relationships between risk of attrition and individual characteristics re‐iterate the importance of including student experience variables to control for the context of a college.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 113 citations exist upstream.

References

1988Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition 1997Talking about Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences 2009Latent Class and Latent Transition Analysis: With Applications in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences 2007A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement.1987Latent Class Analysis 2002Applied Latent Class Analysis 2006Becoming a scientist: The role of undergraduate research in students' cognitive, personal, and professional development 2010Seeking Congruity Between Goals and Roles

Cited by

2017At-risk at the gate: prediction of study success of first-year science and engineering students in an open-admission university in Flanders—any incremental validity of study strategies?2017Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness as Motivators of Graduate Teaching Assistants 2020Testing models of reciprocal relations between social influence and integration in STEM across the college years 2023Engineering climate for marginalized groups: Connections to peer relations and engineering identity 2022

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.