The Role of Faculty-Student Interactions on College Student Persistence at Four-Year Institutions

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Longitudinal Studies Poster Session

Abstract

The present study investigated how college students’ formal and informal interactions with faculty members impact students’ persistence in the first two years of attendance at four-year institutions. A series of logistic regression analyses were conducted using the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) 2004/09 Longitudinal Study dataset from NCES. The results indicate that faculty-student interactions are related to student persistence. Students who have informal meetings with faculty and talk with faculty outside the classroom about academics were more likely to persist during their first two years of college. However, the effects of faculty-student interactions on two-year persistence differed across multiple demographic groups, including gender, race/ethnicity, first-generation status, disability status, Pell grant status, and academic major.

Authors

• Katrina Borowiec, Boston College

• Elka Lacno, California State University

• Catherine Hartman, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Pesha K Mabrie, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Hongwei Yu, Texas State University

• Enyu Zhou, Council of Graduate Schools