PREDICTION OF ATTRITION AMONG MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGE BIOLOGY MAJORS USING SPECIFIC ATTITUDINAL, SOCIO-CULTURAL, AND TRADITIONAL PREDICTIVE VARIABLES (DROPOUT, UNDERGRADUATE, GENDER DIFFERENCES)
Abstract
Women remain underrepresented in the scientific labor force, partially due to differing male and female attrition rates from undergraduate science degree programs. Currently, attrition rates are considerably higher for females than they are for males, even accounting for academic performance. It has been hypothesized that, since traditional ability measures such as grade point averages and SAT scores do not predict attrition as accurately for females as for males, additional factors must affect science attrition among young women. This study used attitudinal and socio-cultural variables as well as traditional variables to predict attrition from science-oriented college majors. Specifically, measures of confidence, teacher attitudes, peer attitudes, parental attitudes, science anxiety, causal attributions for success and failure in science, participation in extracurricular science activities, perceptions of future family/career conflicts, and experience with science role models were assessed in addition to traditional academic variables. Students in four biology courses representing all four years of undergraduate work completed a battery of instruments. The sample was monitored for attrition for one calendar year (January 1984 - January 1985). Students in all four years of college scored similarly on most measures, but differences based on gender occurred frequently. Women expressed a greater willingness to sacrifice career advancement for family responsibilities than did men. However, attitudinal and socio-cultural measures were useful in predicting attrition among both men and women. Predictive equations utilizing these variables along with traditional academic variables were highly successful in predicting students' final college majors, correctly classifying nearly 80% of both male and female students.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Science education
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