Search Results

For the first question, "What effects do the parental status, marital status, and gender of a student have on educational attainment?" data collected for the NLSY97, n = 8,984, was utilized to compare academic attainment amongst participants in regards to gender, marital status, and parental status. Through a series of non-parametric tests, it was found that single, childless, female students had higher educational attainment than any other group, followed by married parent-students of both genders and single-mother students.

For the second question, "What effects do Tinto's pre-entry attributes of family background, skills and abilities, and prior schooling, have on educational attainment of the single-father student?" the impact of seven independent variables, representing Tinto's pre-entry attributes, on educational attainment for single-father students, n = 44 after removal of incomplete records, was studied. Non-parametric tests were utilized to study the relationship between the seven independent variables and educational attainment; an ordered logistic regression was conducted to study the relationship between the independent variables as a group and educational attainment of the single-father student. Results were largely non-significant; however, positive relationships were found to exist between educational attainment and occupation, parents in the childhood home, and average hours worked per week. While non-significant, these results do provide insight into potential future areas of research regarding the single-father student.