Yuman Postsecondary Persistence and Giving Back: Examining Construct Validity and the Influence of Giving Back on Persistence

• In Event: Place, Pathways, Persistence, and Protection in Schooling

Abstract

Due to the lack of quantitative research examining student desire to serve a larger community and the influence on American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) postsecondary persistence, the purpose of this study is to understand how Yuman student desire to serve a larger community influences AI/AN undergraduate students’ persistence (measured by first to second semester/year persistence). The Yuman are tribal members from the Cocopah and Quechan tribes connected by creation story and language. Furthermore, this study will provide validity evidence for a postsecondary persistence scale for AI/AN students through an exploratory factor analysis, and analysis of giving back through two logistic regression models.

Author

• Jameson David Lopez, University of Arizona