Sergi Martín-Arbós, Elena Castarlenas, Fabia Morales-Vives, Jorge-Manuel Dueñas
{"title":"Students’ thoughts about dropping out: Sociodemographic factors and the role of academic help-seeking","authors":"Sergi Martín-Arbós, Elena Castarlenas, Fabia Morales-Vives, Jorge-Manuel Dueñas","doi":"10.1007/s11218-024-09903-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dropout is a problematic issue in education due to its high prevalence and impact on students and society. In fact, it can limit students’ future options, and it involves a substantial cost for public budgets in most countries. This is not an easy problem to solve, since student dropout is a complex decisional process involving such factors as personal and contextual characteristics, educational variables, and psychosocial aspects. Very few studies have examined whether sociodemographic and psycho-educational variables affect educational dropout at different academic levels. For this reason, the present study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of several variables (age, academic results, gender, sexual orientation, academic help-seeking, academic self-efficacy, and planning as a strategy to cope with academic stress) in educational dropout thoughts in a sample of 759 students resident in Spain (age: <i>M</i> = 22.91, 74.0% women). Regression analyses showed that dropout thoughts were significantly predicted by academic results, planning, sexual orientation, academic self-efficacy, and academic help-seeking. Agreements and discrepancies with previous research are discussed. The results of the current study can be used by educators, policy makers and institutions to develop programmes to reduce student dropout by enhancing self-regulated learning strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":51467,"journal":{"name":"Social Psychology of Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Psychology of Education","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-024-09903-5","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Dropout is a problematic issue in education due to its high prevalence and impact on students and society. In fact, it can limit students’ future options, and it involves a substantial cost for public budgets in most countries. This is not an easy problem to solve, since student dropout is a complex decisional process involving such factors as personal and contextual characteristics, educational variables, and psychosocial aspects. Very few studies have examined whether sociodemographic and psycho-educational variables affect educational dropout at different academic levels. For this reason, the present study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of several variables (age, academic results, gender, sexual orientation, academic help-seeking, academic self-efficacy, and planning as a strategy to cope with academic stress) in educational dropout thoughts in a sample of 759 students resident in Spain (age: M = 22.91, 74.0% women). Regression analyses showed that dropout thoughts were significantly predicted by academic results, planning, sexual orientation, academic self-efficacy, and academic help-seeking. Agreements and discrepancies with previous research are discussed. The results of the current study can be used by educators, policy makers and institutions to develop programmes to reduce student dropout by enhancing self-regulated learning strategies.
期刊介绍:
The field of social psychology spans the boundary between the disciplines of psychology and sociology and has traditionally been associated with empirical research. Many studies of human behaviour in education are conducted by persons who identify with social psychology or whose work falls into the social psychological ambit. Several textbooks have been published and a variety of courses are being offered on the `social psychology of education'', but no journal has hitherto appeared to cover the field. Social Psychology of Education fills this gap, covering a wide variety of content concerns, theoretical interests and research methods, among which are: Content concerns: classroom instruction decision making in education educational innovation concerns for gender, race, ethnicity and social class knowledge creation, transmission and effects leadership in schools and school systems long-term effects of instructional processes micropolitics of schools student cultures and interactions teacher recruitment and careers teacher- student relations Theoretical interests: achievement motivation attitude theory attribution theory conflict management and the learning of pro-social behaviour cultural and social capital discourse analysis group dynamics role theory social exchange theory social transition social learning theory status attainment symbolic interaction the study of organisations Research methods: comparative research experiments formal observations historical studies literature reviews panel studies qualitative methods sample surveys For social psychologists with a special interest in educational matters, educational researchers with a social psychological approach.