Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1991

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Harmes, Harold M.

Abstract

Shrinking enrollments have affected many small private and public colleges, causing administrators of these institutions to acknowledge the necessity of retaining enrolled students until graduation. Research reported in the literature supports the value of early identification of potential dropouts for designing and implementing effective intervention strategies. Although the majority of retention studies have been based on student demographic characteristics, Tinto (1975) developed an explanatory predictive model that considers persistence and dropout behaviors as consequences of the quality of a student's interaction with the academic and social systems of an institution. Pascarella and Terenzini (1980), two retention researchers, designed a questionnaire based on the theoretical constructs of Tinto's model of attrition. This questionnaire was administered to freshman students at both a large, public institution and a large, private university with results that generally supported the construct and predictive validities of Tinto's model of college student attrition. The purpose of the current study is to test the predictive reliability and validity of the questionnaire developed by Pascarella and Terenzini (1980) in a third setting: this time at Palm Beach Atlantic College, a small, private college with religious affiliations in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Extent

113 p.

Comments

College of Education|Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|College of Education

Identifier

FADT12269

Format

pdf

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