Data from the Healthy Mind Study were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression analyses to determine the role of discriminatory experience in students' confidence in their ability to persist through graduation, controlling for age, extracurricular activity participation, housing, years in their degree program, and their sense of belonging.…

We examined how character strengths and family importance influenced Mexican American college students' life satisfaction. Using multiple regression analysis, findings indicated that optimism, grit, and gratitude were significant predictors of life satisfaction. We provide a discussion regarding the importance of these findings as well as…

This study examined the impact of collegiate recreation participation on academic success as measured by grade point average, course credit completion, and persistence or graduation. Logistic and multiple regressions were run to explore the relationship between total recreation contact hours and outcome variables. Results indicated a positive and…

Despite considerable research on student retention and persistence, college graduation rates remain modest. This article proposes the concept of student identity centrality, which is defined as the extent to which being a student is important to one's self-image or identity. This study found student identity centrality was positively related to…

This study aims to understand the predictive role of attitudes towards problem solving, such as perseverance and openness for problem solving, as well as of gender and country for Canadian and Finnish students' academic achievement in mathematics and science. We examined the data of students from Canada (n = 21,544) and Finland (n = 8,829) who…

Student engagement is a key predictor of academic performance, persistence and retention in higher education. While many studies have identified how aspects of the college environment influence engagement, fewer have specifically focused on emotional intelligence (EI). In this study, we sought to explore whether EI could predict cognitive and/or…

The California Community College system, as an open access institution, is tasked with helping students who possess math skills far below college-level complete math course requirements for obtaining an associate degree or transfer to a university. Colleges have created various developmental math programs to achieve this mission; this paper…

Grit, one of the newly developed non-cognitive traits, encompasses the characteristics of perseverance and consistency of interest. Grit is associated with good academic performance, resilience, and well-being. To understand the nature of Grit in detail, this study probed the relationship between Grit and the widely-applied and well-established…

Poor academic performance and dropout are major concerns at post-secondary institutions. Influences include sociodemographic, psychosocial, and academic functioning factors. Canadian literature is limited, and little published data directly compare academic outcomes between local-born, immigrant, and international students. We conducted a…

Given the large number of dropouts in the 1st year at university, it is important to identify early predictors of 1st-year academic success. The present study (n = 453 first-year students) contributes to literature on the transition from secondary to higher education by investigating how the non-cognitive factors "pre-university" effort…

We examined the validity of 10 psychosocial factors for predicting retention status (stay, transfer, or drop out) at the start of second year of college by fitting a mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression model. Data consisted of retention records of 9,364 students from 31 four-year institutions. Predictors included commonly used variables…

Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, and Kelly (2007) defined "grit" as one's passion and perseverance toward long-term goals. They proposed that it consists of 2 components: consistency of interests and perseverance of effort. In a high school and college student sample, we used a multidimensional item response theory approach to examine (a)…

The current study examined whether it is possible to increase college students' intention to earn a four-year degree with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Three research questions were examined: (1) Can the TPB predict traditional undergraduates' graduation intention? (2) Does graduation intention differ by traditional students' year of…

We surveyed 237 first-time college students to examine the extent to which social-cognitive factors--self-efficacy, perceptions of mentorship, high school GPA, ACT scores, first-semester college GPA, and demographic characteristics-- influence freshmen's intent to persist. Standard multiple regression and MANOVA were conducted to determine the…

This predictive correlational research study examined the effect of cognitive, demographic, and socioeconomic variables as predictors of regular and special admission students' first-year GPA and retention among a sample of 7,045 students. Findings indicated high school GPA and ACT scores were the two most effective predictors of regular and…