The impact of perceived psychosocial environment and academic emotions on higher education students’ intentions to drop out

Abstract

This study examined the impact of psychosocial environment and academic emotions on higher education students’ intentions to leave their studies. The data were derived from a survey among students at study programmes for teacher education, early childhood education, and social science education at one higher education institution in Norway (n = 206). The survey comprised items from the Academic Emotions scale (AEC), the Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ) and pre-validated scales for Loneliness and Intentions to Leave. In addition, the survey tested out a series of items based on the Emotional Support domain in the Teaching Through Interactions framework (TTI). The study adds to existing research by operationalizing emotional support in higher education learning environments. The findings showed that test emotions and learning-related emotions, perceived loneliness and instructional engagement were significant to explain variance in students’ intentions to discontinue their studies. ANOVA identified significant between-group differences. Older students (>30 years) reported more positive academic emotions and better relations to their teacher than what younger students did, and female students perceived higher levels of instructional engagement than what male students did. Still, the quality of teacher–student relations had no significant impact on students’ intentions to leave.