Students' Intention to Leave University: The Protective Role of Social Connections

ABSTRACT Reducing students' dropout rates represents an important issue for the academic system and the society that is far from being completely understood and solved. While it is largely demonstrated that the quality of university students' social connections significantly impacts their well‐being, its relationship with the decision to leave university is largely unexplored. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between specific variables assessing students' connections (social exclusion, perceived social support, and psychological sense of community) and the intention to leave the university and the academic degree. An online questionnaire was completed by 7096 students from a large Italian university. The results showed that experiences of social exclusion were significantly associated with a higher intention to leave the university and the academic degree, while social support and sense of community were associated with a lower intention. The moderation model showed that the relationship between the experiences of exclusion and the intention to leave was no more significant if the respondents experienced a high sense of community. The results have important implications, suggesting that interventions aimed at increasing the students' sense of community could be potentially useful for reducing the students' dropouts due to negative experiences.