Can normative factors influence academic persistence? An investigation through the planned behaviour theory

Roland, Nathalie [UCL] Frenay, Mariane [UCL] Boudrenghien, Gentiane [UCL]

Academic persistence has been studied by a lot of researchers in the past years, not only because of high dropout rates in first year at university but also because persistence is considered as a key determinant of academic achievement. Researchers mainly focused on background and motivational determinants of persistence. However, few studies took normative factors such as social norms into account to explain persistence. Yet, it could be an essential factor of influence. That’s why we decided to study if including injunctive and descriptive norms to the investigation could improve the understanding of persistence. To this end, we focused on a theoretical framework which consider for background, motivational and normative factors, named the planned behaviour theory. Two studies were conducted in which first year college students (N1= 152; N2 = 848) were asked to answer self-reported questionnaire. We used a structural equation modelling technique to test if norms could improve the understanding of persistence. In both studies, the model included injunctive norms fit better with the data than the model without norms. However, it was not the case with descriptive norms. These original results led to future research and new practical implications.