Are Dropout Decisions Related to Safety
Concerns,
Social Isolation, and Teacher Disparagement?
Stefanie
DeLuca and James E. Rosenbaum
Abstract
While past research has explained high school dropout
as a function of individual attributes or school procedures, this
study considers how relationships with peers and teachers also can
affect students' withdrawal from school. In particular, we focus
on the influence of social isolation, peer threats, and teacher
disparagement on withdrawal behaviors (absences, incomplete assignments,
tardiness, etc.) and dropout. This paper examines which students
are threatened and how these experiences affect their withdrawal
behaviors in school and their decisions to leave school. We also
consider how teachers respond to students experiencing these threats
and how teachers' responses may influence dropout decisions.
Using the National Education Longitudinal Study, we
find that students who are socially isolated and experience teacher
disparagement are more subject to threats in school, more likely
to exhibit withdrawal behaviors, and eventually drop out of school,
even after controls for individual attributes and academic performance.
We also examine inter-vening processes and find that isolated students
are more likely to drop out only if they are more subject to threats,
and that rather than counteracting peer isolation and threats, teachers
reinforce them. Overall, we conclude that social interactions (and
particularly those that lead to threats) play an important part
in explaining dropout, independent of academic outcomes, and should
be an important consideration for school staff designing dropout
prevention programs.
Stefanie DeLuca, Graduate
student, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
James E. Rosenbaum, School of Education and Social
Policy, Northwestern University
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