Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2016

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Counseling and Human Development

Degree Program

Counseling and Personnel Services, PhD

Committee Chair

Hirschy, Amy S.

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Choi, Namok

Committee Member

Choi, Namok

Committee Member

Cuyjet, Michael J.

Committee Member

Pregliasco, Bridgette O.

Author's Keywords

student housing; persistence; academic achievement; first-year student

Abstract

Student apartments that are privately owned and managed on the edge of higher education campuses have become a new paradigm in campus housing. Campus administrators consider privatized housing as a financial resource for providing updated housing facilities. There is minimal research regarding how students succeed academically if living in the privatized housing properties. Krause (2007) confirmed that research regarding how students living off campus succeed in college needs to be more fully addressed. This study was designed to contribute information of how students who live in off-campus privatized student housing apartments succeed academically. This information is important to campus administrators and housing professionals as they plan future housing options for students. This study analyzed grades and persistence with one first-year cohort at a Midwestern, urban institution. The sample included students who lived in each of the three types of campus housing: on campus, privatized student housing off campus, and commuting students. Two pre-college attributes, gender and generation status, were considered with ACT scores analyzed as the covariate. The data produced 103 students (15 first-generation students) living in each of the types of living environment. The small sample numbers may have contributed to the non-significant results of the study. None of the variables were found to have a statistically significant interaction with grades; only generation status was found to be a statistically significant predictor of persistence. The non-significant results neither confirmed nor dispelled the hypotheses of the study and cannot be generalized to other institutions and the results cannot be interpreted with any confidence. However, the findings raised questions that should be studied further. Generation status findings seemed to negate the hypotheses which were based on previous research and asserted that students living on campus have higher grades and persist at higher rates. The findings followed some of research that has found that different groups of students are affected differently by their living environment. Future studies should try to replicate the findings while analyzing larger numbers of students to try to accomplish statistical significance with the variables. Additional variables such as ethnicity and gender-identity should be included in future studies.

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