Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Celeste Wheat, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Denise Knight, Ed.D.

Third Advisor

JJ Wedgeworth, Ph.D.

Abstract

For institutions serving rural students, retention must be a priority. This quantitative, descriptive comparative study examined the existence of a relationship between types of services accessed by rural students ( tutoring, peer mentoring, and centralized advising) and their retention, and the number of accessed services and retention. The study also examined an association between a sense of belonging and support services accessed by students. Vincent Tinto's (1975; 1993) Social Integration Theory and Bean and Eaton's (2000) Psychological Model of Student Retention provided the theoretical framework for this study. The records of 486 students who participated in one or more of the services were examined in this research. Of the 486 students, 164 responded to the University Belonging Questionnaire to provide data for a sense of belonging score that was examined in light of services accessed. Chi-Square Test of Independence revealed a statistically significant relationship between tutoring and retention (X2 (1, N=486) = 9.065,p = .003) and centralized advising and retention (X2 (1, N=486) = 4.523,p = .033). No significant relationship was noted between peer mentoring and retention (X2 (1, N=486) = 1.350, p = .245) nor the number of services accessed and retention (X2 (2, N=486) = .447,p = .800). The Spearman's rho (rs) determined that a positive association existed between the respondents' sense of belonging and services accessed (rs(l64) = .202,p = .009) as well as between each of the sub-scales and services accessed. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on practices impacting retention and fills the gap in research specific to rural students and rural institutions.

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