The Big Five personality dimensions and the process of institutional departure

This study investigated the role of the ''Big Five'' personality dimensions in the dynamics of institutional departure in a convenience sample of 240 first-time, first-semester students enrolled in Introduction to Psychology at a large southwestern state university. Of the "Big Five" dimensions (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience), structural equation modeling revealed that conscientiousness exhibited the largest total effect on institutional departure (-.293). Conscientiousness exerted indirect effects (-.133) on institutional departure via organizational involvement, initial institutional commitment, and cumulative GPA as well as a direct effect (-.160) on institutional departure. Only 14 of the 240 students departed the institution within I year. A discriminant function analysis of institutional persistence versus departure, using cumulative GPA, institutional commitment, and conscientiousness as predictors, yielded a high false positive rate (67.6%) and a high sensitivity rate (78.6%). (C) 1998 Academic Press.