Reaching the Finish Line: Personality and Persistence in Postsecondary Education
Abstract
Few studies have examined the contribution of individual psychological factors to long-term indicators of academic success.
This study examines the influence of personality and individual difference factors in relation to retention. In this study, 290 Canadian undergraduate students completed measures of personality, resiliency, perfectionism, and trait Emotional Intelligence in the first semester of their first year, and enrolment status was collected at the end of each academic year for four years. Multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that only high school grade point average (GPA) and being male predicted a higher likelihood of withdrawing from the program or delaying degree completion, compared to those who completed. The need for future studies with larger samples and consideration of more complex relationships between factors is highlighted.
Metrics
Published
2022-06-24
Keywords
post-secondary, retention, persistence, academic success, personality
Issue
Section
Articles
DOI
License
Copyright in the article is vested with the Author under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
