Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2011

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Sociology and Rural Studies

Abstract

This study examines social factors associated with the academic success and persistence of disadvantaged minority First-Year college students. The major goal of the study is to develop, test and critique a conceptual model that will account for the factors associated with academic success. This model integrates three theoretical threads-the behavioral effects of social bonding, the life course perspective, which emphasizes an academic ethic, and Tinto's studies of college persistence. Data were collected from a population of 174 first-year college students. Statistical testing indicated moderately significant association between college grade point average and the student goal commitment variable. This relationship emerges out of the empirical generalization that students who enter college committed and motivated to graduate are more likely to experience academic success. The life course perspective concepts of academic orientation and academic ethic speak to success in college growing out of academic effort. Additionally, involvement in conventional college activity was found to have a moderate statistically significant relationship with GP A. Here again, Crosnoe' s concepts of academic orientation and academic ethic that tie the life course perspective's emphasis on individual decision-making within a social context to social bond theory's emphasis on commitment to conventional activities and acceptance of conventional values. All the hypotheses dealing with variations in persistence and the independent variables (family income, father's and mother's education, familial social bond, Parental Social Bond Index, student institutional commitment, peer-related social bonds, instructor-related social bond, and student social integration) were rejected. These results are not considered solid empirical evidence of no relationship between college success measured by staying in college and the influences on college success that emerges out of the literature. The research contributes to the sociological literature by testing social bonding theory, the life course perspective, and the theory of student institutional departure in an attempt to explain academic success and retention variations among disadvantaged First year college students.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

College freshmen -- Social conditions

College freshmen -- Minnesota -- Social conditions

College dropouts -- Prevention

Academic achievement

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

147

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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