The role of mental toughness and academic satisfaction in suppressing first-year students’ intentions to dropout of university

Abstract The urgent need to reduce the substantial and persistent incidence of higher education dropout, especially during the first academic year, calls for further research to identify the core predictors of students’ withdrawal intentions and actual behaviors. Specifically, more research is needed to assess whether and how students’ personal resources and academic attitudes interplay in shaping this phenomenon. This study addresses these questions by examining the unexplored joint role of students’ mental toughness and academic satisfaction in counteracting their intention to leave university at the end of the first year. Data from a sample of 187 first-year undergraduates at a non-residential public university, collected at three measurement points, supported the validity of both variables in predicting dropout intentions, after controlling for the effects of academic performance. The results also indicated that the effect of mental toughness in suppressing dropout intentions does not occur when students are dissatisfied with the university. The main implications of these findings are presented and discussed.