ERIC Number: EJ683627
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 21
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1521-0251
EISSN: N/A
E-Mail as Social Capital and Its Impact on First-Year Persistence of 4-Year College Students
Duggan, Michael B.
Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, v6 n2 p169-189 2004-2005
This study addressed the influence of social capital factors on the first-year persistence of beginning first- and second-generation four-year college students. First-generation students were those students whose parents had never attended college. Second-generation students had at least one parent who attended college. A case was made for considering e-mail to be a form of social capital. Data for the study were from the NCES Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) 1996/1998 survey. Findings from the cross-tabulations indicated that first-generation students differed from second-generation students over a range of demographic, socioeconomic, high school, social capital, academic and social integration, and college performance factors. Findings from the sequential logistic regressions indicated that first-generation status, after controlling for all other factors in the study, had a statistically significant, but comparatively minor, negative effect on persistence. Findings indicated that whether a student had an e-mail account was a statistically significant predictor of persistence.
Descriptors: Predictor Variables, Parent Background, Educational Attainment, Social Capital, First Generation College Students, Academic Persistence, Higher Education, Electronic Mail, Student Characteristics
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Numerical/Quantitative Data; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A