Abstract:

As a part of a psycho-educational innovation line, this work aims to develop a correlational and descriptive research on the social, personal and academic variables that had been demonstrated to be relevant factors for university student’s drop out, according to the most relevant theoretical models. Comparisons between groups by sex, choice order of the degree and participation in extracurricular activities are calculated, too.

Participants were 452 first year students of the University of Malaga, from them 181 were boys and 271 were girls. An online questionnaire integrating Perceived Stress scales, Social Climate in the Classroom-U, Satisfaction with the University, Loneliness Scale UCLA-3 and an ad-hoc Likert scale was applied to all of them.

Results confirm the relationship between social, personal and academic factors and drop-out. In addition, significant differences are observed: boys get higher scores in dropout and access qualification and girls, in adaptive factors and in loneliness. Moreover, those who are studying degree selected as their first choice, have an higher punctuation on dropout, in front of those who study second choice and on, who get higher punctuation in social climate, satisfaction and integration. Referring to participation, those who participate in extracurricular activities get higher scores in stress than the other who participate less, who get a higher punctuation in loneliness.

Keywords:

University drop-out, University Adaptation, Mentoring, Orientation, Stress, Academic Performance, Social Climate.