Abstract
This study investigated the validity of Tinto’s (1975) model of college withdrawal in different types of institutions: 4-year residential institutions, 4-year commuter institutions, and 2-year commuter institutions. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 2,326 freshmen from 11 postsecondary institutions. The results generally supported the predictive validity of the model but suggested that interesting differences in the patterns of influence existed when the data were disaggregated by institutional type. The basic differences across type concerned the concepts of social and academic integration. Social integration played a stronger role in influencing persistence at 4-year, primarily residential institutions, while academic integration was more important at 2- and 4-year, primarily commuter institutions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.