A study of the variables affecting the attrition of nontraditional students in Georgia perimeter community college in the state of Georgia, 1999

This quantitative study examined the variables affecting the attrition rate of nontraditional students in Georgia Perimeter Community College. This study involved a population of 1,514 nontraditional students who enrolled at Georgia Perimeter Community College and withdrew prior to graduation. The respondents from the population of 1,514 consisted of 307 subjects. The sample of the population was analyzed during 1993 94, 1994 95 and 1995 96 fall semesters. The ten independent variables identified were: (a) study habits, (b) academic advising, (c) absenteeism, (d) major certainty, (e) course availability, (f) student finances, (g) hours of employment, (h) outside encouragement, (i) family responsibilities, and (j) opportunity to transfer. Attrition rate was the one dependent variable, and the four moderator variables included age, marital status, gender and ethnicity. Surveys were used to gather data for this study and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data. The statistical procedures involved correlation and step wise multiple regression. There were seven significant findings. When the academic variables were submitted, one variable of the academic set was significant using the correlation. Students who withdrew from college expressed uncertainty regarding their choice of major. When the environmental variables were subject to correlation analysis, the analysis did not produce any significance in classifying students who would withdraw from school. When moderating variables were included, six hypotheses showed some significance