Effects of Career-Decision-Making Self-Efficacy on the Retention of Underprepared Adults: A Path Analytic Study of Student Persistence.

A path analytic study examined the effects of career decision-making self-efficacy on the retention of underprepared adults in postsecondary education. The initial sample consisted of 418 underprepared students enrolled in the developmental education unit of a large midwestern urban university who had been subjects of a 1991 study and who represented a 61.7% response rate. Of those students, 398 completed the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy (CDMSE) scale and the Fox (1986) revision of the Pascarella and Terenzini Institutional Integration Scale (IIS) and were then randomly separated into 2 groups. A principal components analysis was performed with each group for two subsets of items from the IIS thought to measure students' commitment to the institution and to obtaining a degree and integration into college and 50 items from the CDMSE survey. A model was developed to describe the role of the following variables in student persistence: intention to persist, cumulative grade-point average, academic integration, social integration, goal commitment, and degree utility. It was concluded that those nontraditional students who believe college will give them opportunities for employment and better careers are most likely to persist in postsecondary education. (Contains 49 references.) (MN)