High school dropout is commonly seen as the result of a long-term process of failure and disengagement. As useful as it is, this view has obscured the heterogeneity of pathways leading to dropout. Research suggests, for instance, that some students leave school not as a result of protracted difficulties but in response to situations that emerge late in their schooling careers, such as health problems or severe peer victimization. Conversely, others with a history of early difficulties persevere when their circumstances improve during high school. Thus, an adequate understanding of why and when students drop out requires a consideration of both long-term vulnerabilities and proximal disruptive events and contingencies. The goal of this review is to integrate long-term and immediate determinants of dropout by proposing a stress process, life course model of dropout. This model is also helpful for understanding how the determinants of dropout vary across socioeconomic conditions and geographical and historical contexts.
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