This research examines the relationships between first-year college students' attendance at campus-sponsored extracurricular events and grade point average, persistence from fall to spring, and retention to the second year. Students' attendance at various campus life events over the course of an academic year was tracked by scanning students'…

Peer mentoring programs frequently are implemented on college campuses to enhance first-year college student retention; however, few studies have examined characteristics of peer mentors that are associated with more supportive mentor-mentee relationships, leaving college personnel with a limited understanding of how to improve these vital…

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to: (1) examine changes in stress during first semester among freshmen undergraduates and (2) identify predictors of stress (coping strategies, emotional states, and quality of sleep). Participants: One hundred ninety-seven freshmen students were recruited for a 10-week study during first quarter…

Aggregate survey responses collected from students are commonly used by universities to compare effective educational practices across program majors, and to make high-stakes decisions about the effectiveness of programs. Yet if there is too much heterogeneity among student responses within programs, the program-level averages may not…

Objective: To examine differences between heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning students' nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD). Participants: First-year university students between October 2009 and October 2013 who self-identified as heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning. Methods: Students completed…

Ongoing efforts to broaden the participation of women and people of colour in engineering degree programmes and careers have had limited success. This paper describes a different approach to broadening participation that seeks to work with all students and develop inclusive engineering identities. Researchers worked with the instructors of two…

Many researchers assessing the efficacy of educational programs face challenges due to issues with non-randomization and the likelihood of dependence between nested subjects. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate a rigorous research methodology using a hierarchical propensity score matching method that can be utilized in contexts where…

We examined the role of six psychosocial factors (PSFs) in explaining gender gaps in English Composition (n = 8,633) and College Algebra (n = 2,261) using data of first-year female (55%) and male students from 42 colleges. Using a multilevel model and controlling for prior achievement, we found that PSFs mediated between 3% and 41% of the gender…

Research on the faculty impact on students' academic achievement has been disproportionately confined to the context of countries with developed higher education systems. Few studies have been undertaken in the developing world like Cambodia. This study employed hierarchical linear modeling to examine the relationships between faculty behaviors…

Completing college is now the minimum threshold for entry into the middle class. This has pushed college readiness issues to the forefront in efforts to increase educational attainment. Little is known about how college readiness improves outcomes for students traditionally marginalized in educational settings or if social background factors…

While the importance of institutional mission is acknowledged within the higher education community, there is a lack of empirical evidence investigating how missions are experienced. Using survey data from students and faculty, this study investigates perceptions of mission engagement at religiously affiliated and independent institutions.…

This study used data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) to examine how student background characteristics, student engagement, and institutional characteristics correlate with the frequency of interactional diversity among community college students. Given the current lack of research on interactional diversity among…

Poor motivation is commonly cited as a concern when interpreting results from low-stakes standardized tests administered to postsecondary students. This study investigates the associations between test administration procedures and students' self-reported effort and performance on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), an open-ended test of…

Students' learning goals demonstrate much stronger variety than traditional goal orientation models for classroom learning assume, especially when the educational context allows so. In this empirical study we will investigate the richness of students' goal orientation in a collaborative learning context. We do so with the help of a goal…

Openness to diversity and challenge (ODC) constitutes an integral outcome of the undergraduate experience. However, ODC may also serve as a form of generalized openness to experience; if so, then it should be positively related to a host of college experiences as well as student success. The study reported here explored this possibility within a…