The effect of psychosocial factors on the academic persistence of undergraduate university students

Abstract

The high dropout rate of undergraduate students in institutions of higher learning continues to be a concern for the higher education sector globally. Although university dropout has been studied over the years, little attention has been paid to the psychosocial factors that predict university dropout. Therefore, this study investigated the role of sense of sense of belonging, perceived social support, academic motivation, and academic anxiety on the academic persistence of undergraduate university students. The study also investigated the role of background factors, students' socioeconomic status and generation status on academic persistence. The sample comprised 489 students from a university in South Africa and a quantitative research approach was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of this study showed that sense of belonging, academic motivation, and the generation status of students significantly predicted academic persistence, whereas academic anxiety, perceived social support, and the socioeconomic status of students was not predictive of academic persistence. The findings also showed that sense of belonging significantly mediated the relationship between academic anxiety and academic persistence. In addition, sense of belonging significantly mediated the relationship between perceived social support and academic persistence. Furthermore, sense of belonging significantly moderated the relationship between academic motivation and academic persistence. The findings also showed that sense of belonging significantly and directly predicted academic motivation, academic anxiety, academic persistence, and indirectly predicted academic persistence, via academic motivation. However, the study found that sense of belonging could not predict academic persistence, via academic anxiety. The findings also showed that the relationship between sense of belonging, academic motivation, academic anxiety and academic persistence, with sense of belonging predicted to have a significant indirect effect on academic persistence, via academic anxiety and academic motivation, was moderated by participants’ generation status. The findings of the study highlight that undergraduate students need to be supported continually through multiple intervention strategies during their studies at university. Furthermore, the findings encourage university administrators to reform and introduce robust student support policies.