An exploratory study of student attrition on a military training program
Date
1988
Authors
Manning, Thomas Francis
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Abstract
This study was an exploration of student attrition on a military training program. Factors relating to attrition among Francophone students as compared to Anglophone students were examined using a model which combined the major constructs of Tinto's Model of Institutional Attrition {1975) with those of Mobley's Expanded Turnover Process Model (Mobley, 1982). The study was conducted at the Naval Officer Training Centre, located at Esquimalt, B. C. and involved 75 Anglophone and 60 Francophone naval officers who had successfully completed the MARS 71A Training Program between 1981 and 1988 and 65 Anglophone and 52 Francophone ex-naval candidates who had commenced training during this period but who had failed to complete the training. Multiple regression analysis established that the model explains 28. 7 percent of the total variance in the MARS attrition process. Separate applications of the regression analysis revealing that the model explains 30. 8 percent of the variance in the Anglophone attrition process and 31.2 percent in the Francophone attrition process. Five variables were identified as being significantly associated with the attrition process; goal commitment, organization factors, extra-organizational factors, academic integration, and age. As predicted by several prior applications of Tinto's model, the background variables were not significantly associated with the attrition process, suggesting that the students' experiences during training are more important than the characteristics which they bring to a training institution.
A 2 X 2 MANOVA conducted on the six dependent variables (academic integration, social integration, goal commitment, organizational factors, extra-organization factors, and individual factors) to analyze the difference with respect to the independent variables of group (Anglophones Francophones) and status (completers - dropouts) revealed a statistically significant main effect for status but failed to identify a significant main effect for group or a significant interaction effect. Univariate F tests on the status effect revealed that the differences were statistically significant on four of the six variables; academic integration, social integration, goal commitment, and extra-organizational factors.
Chi-square tests of independence failed to detect an association between a student's age or his entry plan into the Canadian Forces and attrition on the overall sample. The tests did, however, discover a significant association between age and attrition on the Anglophone sample and entry plan and attrition on the Francophone sample.