Persistence to degree completion: A profile of students with psychiatric disabilities in higher education

Abstract

Accumulating evidence indicates that although the enrollment of students with psychiatric disabilities in U.S. postsecondary institutions is on the rise, these students are not persisting to degree completion at the same rate as their peers without psychiatric disabilities. However, a national investigation of the persistence rates and characteristics of students with disabilities has yet to be conducted. This research study summarizes descriptive data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 04/09) data set on the characteristics and persistence rates of students with psychiatric disabilities (N = 350) enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions. The first-to-second year persistence rate of these students was 76.6% while the three year cumulative persistence and persistence to degree completion rates were 61% and 54.7%, respectively. The demographic and background characteristics of the participants resembled those of typical at-risk students in postsecondary education. Although their academic and social integration into their institutions was limited, chi-square analyses did reveal a significant association between first-to-second year persistence and how often students met with their academic advisors in their first year. These analyses also demonstrated a significant relationship between first-to-second year persistence and all three social integration variables examined in the study.