This dissertation collects three independent but related empirical studies that explore different dimensions of postsecondary attainment in the United States. The first study uses multilevel models to examine predictors of nonresponse when using the experience sampling method (ESM), a form of momentary data collection that captures participants’ situational thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Because ESM approaches often seek to generalize and compare participants’ emotional states across days and times, it is important to understand how and when participants may miss response opportunities, and further to explore how this response bias may limit generalizability of findings. Results from this study, conducted in three mid-Michigan high schools in 2013-2014 with a sample of more than 140 students, find that time of day and day of week are significantly related to a given participant’s odds of nonresponse. Specifically, ESM “beeps” occurring after school and over the weekend had much higher odds of being missed by participants, even after controlling for other covariates such as race/ethnicity, gender, and person-level emotional trends. These findings suggest if day and time contextual factors are significantly related to odds of nonresponse, then research approaches that seek to compare widely different time contexts should be mindful of possible generalizability concerns. The second study reports on initial findings from the first year of matched pair of social psychological interventions designed to improve students’ postsecondary persistence and academic success. These interventions, which target students’ mindset regarding intelligence and their sense of social belonging, were implemented in a randomized sample of more than 6,000 incoming first-year students at a large university in mid-Michigan in summer 2014. Initial results suggest that the randomization achieved strong balance between treatment and control groups on all measured covariates, and rates of attrition (both overall and differential) were less then one percent in all cases, suggesting strong randomized properties. After one semester, the belonging intervention saw no positive main effects on GPA, credits attempted, or credits completed, while students in the mindset treatment group had slightly higher GPAs (0.15 points) compared to students in the control. These small but significant main effects after only one semester suggest that mindset interventions such as this may be a low-cost and minimally invasive approach to improving students’ academic success. Finally, a third study examines the impact of high school teachers’ colleagues on their own beliefs and practices related to college going. Using two time-point survey data collected from 104 teachers in four mid-Michigan high schools in 2011-2012, this study employs cluster analysis to map collegial networks by school and influence models to examine how teachers are impacted by their closest colleagues. Results of the cluster analysis suggest that all four high schools show evidence of distinct clustering by subgroups. Results from influence models show that while positive in almost all cases, the impact of teachers’ exposure to colleagues is not significantly related to a change in beliefs or practices. However, interaction with college-advising program staff is found to be related to a small positive change in some teacher practices.
Read
