Doctoral Student Attrition in the Stem Fields: An Exploratory Event History Analysis

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe L. Lott ◽  
Susan Gardner ◽  
Daniel A. Powers

The STEM fields, otherwise known as the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics areas, have become the focus of multiple studies and funding initiatives in recent years. Despite these efforts, lingering concerns exist about who enters, who is retained, and who completes the doctorate in STEM fields. This study utilizes discrete-time event history analysis to model doctoral attrition for 10,088 individuals, in 56 STEM departments, at one research-extensive institution, located in the South, over a 20-year period. Results show that the odds of attrition are the greatest in the first year. Additionally, the odds of attrition are greater for females, Asians, and for those who belong to a hard-applied science major (versus a hard-pure major). The odds of attrition are lower for married students and for those who have higher relative GRE scores than their peers in the same program. The findings of this study provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between particular characteristics of doctoral students and programs on attrition rates over time.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Jaksztat ◽  
Martin Neugebauer ◽  
Gesche Brandt

AbstractDespite the benefits of a PhD for degree-holders as well for society as a whole, doctoral student attrition is a common phenomenon. Unfortunately, the empirical literature on dropout from doctoral education is scant, especially for non-US countries—an omission we address in the current study. Building on Tinto’s model of student attrition and rational choice theory, the study empirically assesses the association of different individual, institutional, and external factors with the propensity to leave doctoral studies. Unlike most studies in the field, it draws on longitudinal data using event history modelling, observing doctoral students in multiple disciplines and a wide range of universities. The key results can be summarized as follows: In Germany, women are more likely to dropout than men. The probability of dropping out strongly depends on the discipline and the availability of a scholarship. A close contact with the supervisor and exchange with other PhDs are associated with a lower dropout probability. Moreover, having children increases dropout rates. The study findings provide first empirical guidance for interventions that can possibly help reducing dropout.


1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-357
Author(s):  
Johannes Huinink

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Onno Boonstra ◽  
Maarten Panhuysen

Population registers are recognised to be a very important source for demographic research, because it enables us to study the lifecourse of individuals as well as households. A very good technique for lifecourse analysis is event history analysis. Unfortunately, there are marked differences in the way the data are available in population registers and the way event history analysis expects them to be. The source-oriented approach of computing historical data calls for a ‘five-file structure’, whereas event history analysis only can handle fiat files. In this article, we suggest a series of twelve steps with which population register data can be transposed from a five-file structured database into a ‘flat file’ event history analysis dataset.


Author(s):  
Yujin Kim

In the context of South Korea, characterized by increasing population aging and a changing family structure, this study examined differences in the risk of cognitive impairment by marital status and investigated whether this association differs by gender. The data were derived from the 2006–2018 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging. The sample comprised 7,568 respondents aged 45 years or older, who contributed 30,414 person-year observations. Event history analysis was used to predict the odds of cognitive impairment by marital status and gender. Relative to their married counterparts, never-married and divorced people were the most disadvantaged in terms of cognitive health. In addition, the association between marital status and cognitive impairment was much stronger for men than for women. Further, gender-stratified analyses showed that, compared with married men, never-married men had a higher risk of cognitive impairment, but there were no significant effects of marital status for women.


1998 ◽  
Vol 43 (S6) ◽  
pp. 33-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly J. McCammon

Historians and social scientists often investigate the conditions that influence the occurrence of particular events. For instance, a researcher might be concerned with the causes of revolutionary action in some countries or the forces that unleash racial rioting in major cities. Or perhaps the researcher wishes to examine why industrial workers decide to strike or what prompts policy-makers to pass new legislation. In each of these examples, a qualitative shift occurs, from a circumstance without racial rioting in a particular city, for instance, to one with racial rioting. Event history analysis can aid researchers in uncovering the conditions that lead to such a shift.


2004 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E. Lincoln

Research has indicated significant age differences between male and female Academy Award nominees and winners. However, this discrepancy may be associated with sex differences in actors' ages when they first begin their acting careers. The present research uses event history analysis to investigate the duration of Academy Award nominees' careers from career start (first film) to first three Academy Award nominations. Analysis suggested controlling for an actor's age at first film explains the sex-age disparity between Academy Award nominees and winners.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clea McNeely ◽  
Brian K. Barber ◽  
Carolyn Spellings ◽  
Robert Belli ◽  
Rita Giacaman ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Biggers ◽  
Michael J. Hanmer

Recently, many states have reversed the decades-long trend of facilitating ballot access by enacting a wave of laws requesting or requiring identification from registrants before they vote. Identification laws, however, are not an entirely new phenomenon. We offer new theoretical insights regarding how changes in political power influence the adoption of identification laws. In the most extensive analysis to date, we use event history analysis to examine why states adopted a range of identification laws over the past several decades. We consistently find that the propensity to adopt is greatest when control of the governor’s office and legislature switches to Republicans (relationships not previously identified), and that this likelihood increases further as the size of Black and Latino populations in the state expands. We also find that federal legislation in the form of the Help America Vote Act seems to enhance the effects of switches in partisan control.


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